COFFEE, IT'S TASTE AND BEGINNINGS
A lot of people can't imagine to start their day without a cup of coffee. Usually, it is a morning ritual that we do to kick our day on. We go to work where we have our second cup of coffee with our colleagues and maybe after lunch we get our third to stay concentrated until the work day is over.
But what if we stopped for a minute and think about the process and what it takes to get this delicious hot drink?
Coffee and its beginnings:
The story of coffee origins goes a few centuries back to the ancient coffee forests on the Ethiopian plateau. Legend says that the goat herder Kaldi first discovered the effect of coffee beans. When his goats ate berries from a certain tree, they suddenly became very energetic that they didn't want to sleep at night. Then Kali decided to inform the abbot of the local monastery and he drank with the berries which kept him awake for long hours of evening prayer. This discovery spread into other monks and knowledge of energizing berries began to spread.
When coffee arrived in Arabian Peninsula, it started the journey that brought these beans all around the world. By the 15th century, coffee was being grown in the Yemeni district of Arabia and in 16th century it was known in Persia, Egypt, Syria and Turkey.
In the 17th century coffee arrived to Europe and became very popular. By the mid-17th century, there were over 300 coffee houses in London (NCA - National Coffee Association USA- Est. 1911, no date).
The taste and growing:
Coffee is made of roasting and grounding the seeds. Of course, coffee needs a special climate such as frost-free climate with average rainfall and enough sunshine. Origin regions are likely to be known as the tropical regions where coffee grows. There are two types of species, Coffea arabica and Coffea canephora, for most of us known as Arabica and Robusta. Whereas Robusta grows at lower altitudes than Arabica and is mostly used for instant coffee because of its lower quality, Arabica is mostly used for specialty coffee (Jolliffe, 2010, ch. 1, p. 6).
There are 3 main types of coffee processing: washed, natural/dry and honey
1. Washed coffee
The key factors are varietal, soil, weather, ripeness, fermentation, washing, and drying. Of course, farmers, the country of origin and environmental conditions are integral part of crafting the taste of the coffee.
This proces is mainly used with specialty coffee because it highlights the true character of a single bean.
Turp, R. (2016)
2. Natural/dry coffee
Natural process, also known as dry, comes from Ethiopia. The fruit remains on the bean and dries. Even though it is not so costly it requires certain climatic conditions to ensure the drying of the fruit.
This process is considered as lower-quality method that lead to inconsistent flavours. Some people can argue that if consistency is aschieved then natural/dry coffee can match washed coffee and can provide more interesting characteristics as well.
Also, natural coffee is the most eco-friendly.
Turp, R. (2016)
3. Honey coffee
The name comes from the stickeness of the beans during the process. Some people claim that if it is done right, it can literally taste like someone has put honey and brown sugar into your cup.
This process is conected with Costa Rica. In recent years there has been developed subcategories such as: yellow, red, golden, black, and white honey. The level of mucilage influences the sweetnes and depth of body of the coffee. The more mucilage left on the bean, the sweeter the taste is.
Honey coffee is fruity but not as much as some naturals. It has more rounded acidity than washed coffees with intense sweetenes and complex mouth feels. That’s why is often considered as halfway a washed coffee and a natural coffee (Turp, 2016).
Turp, R. (2016)
In 2016, over 157 milion bags of coffee were produced. In the map below, we can see the global distribution of coffee where the production of coffee tends to gather in countries around the equator, where are the growing conditions gor growing coffee more conducive. Also, in 2016, 102 milion bags of Arabica was produced and 56 milion bags of Robusta was produced which means that ArabIca was produced significantly more. Brazil was one of the largest producing country with 55 milion bags of coffee producing. Other leading countries were Colombia (14.5 milions bags), Indonesia (11.2 milion bags) and Honduras (7 milion bags). (Cafespaces, 2017)
Of course, the coffee harvests each year naturally differ because of climatic conditions, trading conditions and a number of other factors. We can see how the pattern of production has changed between 2015 and 2016. Green countires shows the percentage change experiencing growth in production and the red countries shows the percentage change experiencing decline. (Cafespaces, 2017)
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(Cafespaces, 2017)
References:
Cafespaces (2017) Available at: https://cafespaces.wordpress.com/2017/12/19/data-insight-world-coffee-production-and-consumption/ (Accessed: 4 January 2020).
NCA - National Coffee Association USA- Est. 1911 (No date) The History of Coffee. Available at: https://www.ncausa.org/about-
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