The leaves of the coffee tree look like the camellia's. They are
broad, shiny, very dark, and shaped like spearheads. The small white
flowers are star-shaped blossoms that appear in clusters at the base of
the leaves. The coffee plant pollinates itself, resulting in a
purer and stable stock, with few chances for variations. An evergreen
plant, the coffee tree grows up to 6 metres in height, almost 20 feet.
The farmers will prune them to only 2 metres in heights or about 6 feet
in order to make it easier to pick the beans and to encourage a heavy
growth of the beans. When the coffee plantation is in bloom, with all
of the blossoms bursting forth simultaneously, the intense perfume is
strong enough to be detectable for miles. A few days later, the
blossoms have all fallen, revealing clusters of berries that have formed
at the base of the leaves.
With the size and color of cherries, the oval berries contain a pair of
coffee beans (sometimes one and sometimes three, much like the
unpredictable peanut), and they are sold in the market as peaberries. A
single tree will produce up to 12 pounds of coffee beans annually, much
of this a result of climate and soil conditions. When starting a new
tree, a seed usually takes about three years of growth before it will
bear fruit and another three years to reach maturity, but it can also be
generated by cuttings.
The mountain rain forests of Ethiopia, where all coffee plants
originated, have wild growths of coffea arabica, appearing in the
forest halfway between the ground cover and their tallest neighbors.
Reliable, regular conditions promote the growth of the trees, with no
extremes, neither excessively hot and dry conditions nor any degree of
frost. If the rainfall is heavy, they can produce too much fruit too
quickly, but without sufficient rainfall they will never flower and bear
fruit. The tree requires an equal balance of sunshine, never too much
direct sunlight, and never too dark or overcast. Plantation growers
have adopted to the natural setting by growing shade trees nearby, or
using the trellis to provide the right mixture of daylight and shade.
In mountainous regions, they can be grown on hillsides, giving the
correct balance of sunlight and shade throughout their growing season.
Trees grown at higher altitudes produce a harder bean that contains less
moisture, is slower to mature, but generates more flavor. Soft bean
varies are nevertheless flavorful and sought after by coffee flavor
enthusiasts. The harvesting of the beans is an important activity in
the flavor, with the picker selecting the ripe red berries, bypassing
the unripe green berries and removing the overripe black berries.
Coffee that is harvested hastily will strip the tree of its fruit in a
single pass, mixing together all three kinds of beans. The harvest is
then prepared in one of two methods, either by drying the berries in the
sun or with a mechanical dryer then stripping the husk from the bean, or
by the wet method that gently removes the bean husk before it is dried
in a process called fermentation. In the latter, the beans are
soaked and their natural enzymes digest the slimy layer of the bean.
Afterward, the bean is dried in the sun. The wet method is preferred in
places like Brazil where the berries ripen all at once. In Colombia,
there is much rainfall all year round, with the result that the coffee
can be processed continuously, so that fewer workers are required to
process the crop in phases. Care must be taken to remove green berries
that have become mixed with the ripe beans or they will rot and impart
an unpleasant flavor to the surrounding beans. Often, those coffee
harvests that have been handled with the greatest of care will result in
a higher grade of coffee bean.
For those who simple take pleasure in growing an unusual plant, the
coffee arabica can be grown easily indoors, making an attractive
and aromatic house plant. You can buy a seedling at some indoor
nurseries.
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