The Coffee Tree

In a comprehensive country-by-country analysis, the different coffees produced around the world are widely being discussed and studied. They cover all the stages from harvesting, processing, sorting, grading through to roasting, that are involved in transforming the unripe green bean into the aromatic roasted coffee bean appreciated the world over.

The coffea plant is a genus of the Rubiaceae family. Classification of coffee plants is complicated, as there are many species, varieties and strains. The two species from which most commercial coffee comes are the coffea arabica, a complex species with numerous varieties, and the coffea canephora species, usually called robusta, which is the name of its most productive variety.

Other species of coffee trees include coffea liberica, discovered in Liberia in 1843, and coffea dewevrei, better known as excelsa, both of which have robusta-like qualities and are generally rather unsavory, to say the least. Much effort has gone into development of hybrid coffee trees, but the general consensus is that although the new strains add productivity, hardy resistance and perhaps longer life to coffee trees, the hybrid flavors are simply not as good as the old ones.

All coffee is grown in the wide tropical belt surrounding the Equator between the Tropics of Cancer and Capricorn, but depending on their species and variety, the plants vary enormously in appearance. The evergreen foliage may be practically any shade in a range from yellowy-green to deep green or even bronze, and the shiny leaves are corrugated, more so for robusta than arabica. Some plants remain small shrubs, while others would tower at 18m / 60 feet if they were not kept pruned for ease of harvesting.

A coffee plant, if not propagated from a cutting, begins life as a sprout issuing from a "parchment" bean which has been plated in shallow, sandy soil. As the sprout takes root, it pushes the bean out of the soil. In a few day's time the first two leaves emerge from the bean, now at the top of the tiny sprout. The old bean husk, hollow, soon falls to the ground. Next, the tiny seedling is transferred to its individual container in a nursery.

For about a year, it is tended carefully and introduced to open weather as the nursery "roof" of logs or other protective covering, is gradually removed; at most, a few hours per day of direct sun is all the rather temperamental coffee will ever want. The small plant will then be set out in the field, possibly under the protection of a banana tree's broad leaves, particularly if the plantation is located on flat terrain nearer the Equator, where the sun's rays are more direct. If the tree is planted on a mountain slope, it may need not protection, as mountain-sides receive direct sun for only part of a day, and coffee trees on high plateau often enjoy the humidity and sun-screen resulting from high altitude cloud-cover.

For several years the tree will not produce any fruit, although it may require irrigation, pruning, weeding, spraying, fertilization and mulching. The latter two help if the soil is not the best for coffee, which thrives in the rich loam formed from volcanic ash, full of nitrogen, potash and phosphoric acid. Finally, when the tree is four to five years old, it bears its first crop. It quickly reaches its productive peak within a couple of years, but will yield fruit for a total of about twenty to twenty-five years, during which time it must be constantly tended.

All coffee trees are capable of bearing blossom, green fruit and ripe fruit simultaneously on the same branch, thus almost certainly necessitating harvesting by hand. There are one or two main harvest, and possibly several secondary harvests, as the growing seasons vary depending on the species and the location. A coffee plantation, therefore, is seldom without some blossoms. The flowers, which develop in clusters, are creamy-white and produce a fragrance reminiscent of jasmine. The flowers last only a few days; they are soon replaced by clusters of small green berries, which take several months to become ripe red cherries, ready for picking.