Facts About Organic Coffee Beans

. About ninety percent of the world's coffee is made from one or the other of these species, or more often from a blend. This means that even if they are sometimes difficult to grow, the organic type of coffee beans from either of these species will always be a valuable and highly desired crop for farmers, especially if they participate in a fair trade program.

You can buy coffee made from both types of beans; however, except in the most gourmet flavors, there will usually be some sort of blend of the two. Arabica provides the richest flavor, while robusta tends to be a little harsher. Yet between the two species, the arabica is more difficult to grow. It prefers a shadier growing site, and it's also more prone to disease.

Robusta, meanwhile, is hardier and has more resistance to pests. It can also have up to twice the caffeine content as its counterpart. So most mainstream coffees will be made mainly from robusta coffee beans, with some arabica to enhance flavor, while the gourmet blends will have much higher arabica content.

When it comes to fair trade coffee, even the more expensive and difficult to grow arabica coffee plant is cultivated, because of the value and rich flavor of the coffee it produces. But it grows better in some parts of the world than in others, so is more likely to be part of the fair trade programs in those regions. These include northern Africa and, as the plant's name suggests, on the Arabian Peninsula. The Indonesian islands of Sumatra and Java provide nearly perfect conditions for arabica, and produce coffee beans with lower acidity than coffees from Africa or South America. Indonesian arabica coffee helps produce a richer flavor when blended with them.

Obviously, with the arabica coffee beans being more difficult to produce, and the plants more prone to disease and infestation than robusta plants, growing arabica organically can be more difficult, because this means not using either chemical fertilizers or pesticides. Yet even with these difficulties, the high quality of the fair trade organic coffee blends that include both arabica and robusta make the process or organic cultivation worth not just the extra work, but worth the extra cost as well.

by: Ana Dupas

POST COMMENT

Find Out More About Coffee Roasts Best Accompaniments For Tea And Coffee Grind And Brew Espresso Coffee Machines Make The Best Coffee Honest Truth About Growth Of Coffee Consumption In The Us Find Out About Getting Gourmet Coffee Inexpensively The Remarkable Story Of The Ganoderma Coffee Great Taste And Diversity When You Buy Kona Blend Coffee Coffee Diet Aids Weight Loss Top 5 Coffee Makers Ringtons Cuppas, More Than Tea & Coffee For More Than 100 Years! A Coffee Blend From Countries In The Globe 7 Steps To A Clean Coffee Maker Used Coffee Grounds and Your Garden: Get Ready to Grow!