Cultivating Coffee - Life Before the Cup
Cultivating coffee takes years of constant effort. So before you take your coffee for granted, think about the humble beginnings of the coffee bean before it landed into your cup. Cultivating coffee is no joke especially for the plantation worker who individually hand-pick every tree.
Coffee trees bear the precious fruits that enclose the most sought after jewels. Trading coffee produces billions of dollars each year. And the consumption and demand for the precious dark brew still grows each year.
Vital Factors in Cultivating Coffee
Coffee plantations are found mostly in tropical regions across the globe. Coffee trees grow best under the shade with moderate winds. The need for humidity and a bit of rainfall is also crucial for the growth and production of coffee cherries.
Coffee trees are grown in more than 70 countries. The brews differ from one another, as regions may vary in the amount of rainfall, sunlight and elevation.
The Arabica coffee variety is the finest since it is grown mainly in highly elevated areas. This type of coffee is prone to diseases and needs more attention than the other variety.
Robusta on the other hand is grown on lower altitudes and it is more disease resistant. It is also less expensive and widely used commercially.
The need for loamy soil, high altitudes of around 3,000 feet, adequate amounts of mist and cloud help produce the best quality coffee beans. And because of the high altitude requirement, oxygen in the air is lesser, thus keeping the trees from maturing rapidly.
It takes about 5 years from the time the coffee tree is planted. It produces Jasmine-like flowers and when the first coffee cherries develop, they only yield around 1 kilogram of coffee.
The coffee tree can live up to 25 years and in its lifetime it will produce coffee cherries. A hectare of coffee trees can produce from 3,000 to 4,000 kilograms of coffee given the right conditions.
The coffee cherries are hand-picked by plantation workers and it takes skill to segregate the green from the red cherries, and the good from the bad coffee beans.
From the high altitudes and harsh weather conditions, to the manual labor of picking the cherries, the price of coffee is the second highest in the world next to petroleum. No wonder that it is a priced commodity and most sought after beverage across continents.
Whether you buy instant or gourmet or from a popular coffee shop, in general, a cup of Joe is the product of hard labor that goes with cultivating coffee.
