Basic knowledge of boutique coffee varieties of coffee trees

Coffee is a perennial evergreen shrub or small tree of Rubiaceae. It is a kind of horticultural perennial economic crop with the characteristics of fast-growing, high yield, high value and wide market. Wild coffee trees can grow to 5 to 10 meters tall, but coffee trees grown on plantations are cut to less than 2 meters in order to increase fruit yield and facilitate harvesting. Coffee tree opposite leaves are long oval, leaf surface smooth, terminal branches are very long, few branches, and flowers are white, open at the base of the petiole connecting branches.

Arabica coffee trees can be divided into two main species: Coffea Arabica and Coffea robusta/Coffea Canephora. There are also minor species, such as Coffea Liberica and Coffea Arabusta, but they are rarely seen on the market.

Robusta beans Robusta coffee trees can grow on flat ground, are more resistant to disease, and yield more. Compared to Arabica beans, Robusta beans are round in shape, with a slightly swollen side in the middle and straight grooves reminiscent of soybeans, while Arabica beans are longer, with zigzag grooves, a bit like half a peanut.

Robusta beans generally taste poorer, caffeine content is 2 to 3 times that of Arabica beans, cheap, mostly for the production of large coffee industry instant coffee or low-cost products. Arabica coffee trees are suitable for growing on fertile slopes with good drainage at altitudes of about 1,000 to 2,000 meters. The climate for growth cannot be too humid, but it still needs continuous rainy seasons and abundant rainfall.

During the day, they prefer mild temperatures and less than two hours of direct sunlight, so in the absence of the afternoon showers or fogs that are reported daily, local farmers must plant many taller trees in the coffee garden to provide shade. At night, they want to have around ten degrees Celsius but not too cold, because too warm will make coffee berries grow too fast to produce small, strong coffee beans; if it is cold enough to frost, the coffee tree will freeze to death.

Based on these characteristics, most of the land suitable for Arabica coffee growth is located between the Tropic of Capricorn and the Tropic of Capricorn, which is also known as the Coffee Zone/Coffee belt.

At present, coffee as an elegant, fashionable, high-grade beverage has long been popular all over the world, and has been listed as the world's three major beverages (coffee, tea, cocoa) first, coffee cultivation also throughout the world's 76 countries and regions, only 1983-1984, the world's coffee production reached 5.5 million tons, exports of 4.2 million tons, of which known as the "coffee kingdom" known as South America Brazil's production and exports the most. However, the hometown of coffee is not Brazil, but Ethiopia in Africa. Up to now, there are large wild coffee forests in the dense jungle of Kafa Province in the southwest of the country. The word "coffee" comes from the place name "Kafa".