Where Has Your Coffee Bean?

Coffee is one of the most widely consumed beverages in the world

, but how much do we actually know about this unique product?

The seeds of the coffee plant are known as coffee beans, and are found inside the red or purple fruit known as coffee cherries or coffee berries. These seeds are usually called 'beans' because they look very similar to a true bean. Coffee cherries usually contain two beans, and if they only have one single bean, they are known as peaberries.

The first coffee beans were grown and cultivated in Yemen 2000 years ago. The cultivation of the coffee plant relentlessly spread across the world even though it was a closely guarded secret in Yemen. Some coffee plants were eventually smuggled out to various parts of the world including the Dutch East Indies, the West Indies and of course South America. Coffee seeds are major cash crop and form an important export product, accounting for over 50% of foreign exchange earnings in some of the developing nations. Large importers of coffee are the US and Italy.

South America is responsible for nearly 45% of the world's total coffee exports and probably the most well-known of coffee around the world is Brazilian and Columbian coffee. Coffee beans are roasted to varying degrees of darkness, with espresso beans being among the darkest and richest in strength and taste. They are usually roasted from a blend of beans so that any formula cannot be easily copied. The two major varieties of coffee beans are robusta and arabica. Coffee robusta is also widely known as Coffee canephora, and accounts for nearly 20% of coffee production worldwide. The other 80% of coffee production is of the Arabica variety but there is an amazing range of coffee bean flavours and qualities grown throughout the temperate coffee growing regions, with most of these varieties named after the region where they are predominately found.

The arabica beans are grown at temperature ranging between 15 and 24 degree Celsius, whilst the robusta beans are grown at temperatures between 24 and 30 degree Celsius. The ripe cherries are usually picked by hand as a typical coffee plant has both young and ripe cherries on the branch at the same time making automation difficult. After picking, the cherries are processed. The beans are then processed using either wet processing or dry processing. Wet processing is widely used in by the major commercial producers in Asia and South America, whilst dry processing - being cheaper and simpler - is widely used by smaller plantations in Africa and Central America.

by: Fenton Wayne

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