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Climate
Coffee grows exclusively in tropical and sub-tropical climates. The present coffee-producing belt round the globe comprises about 70 countries involved in cultivation and lies between the latitudes of 23 degrees north and 25 degrees south. The ideal growing conditions for coffee trees are an average of 17° C to 23° C, abundant precipitation and fertile soil.
Varieties
There are more than 60 different varieties of coffee, but for trade purposes Arabica and Robusta are the most important. The various types of coffee differ according to variety and origin (highland or lowland), flavour and aroma.
Altitude
Highland coffees have a particularly fine aroma and are cultivated on plantations at altitudes of 600 m to 1800 m above sea level. Lowland coffees have a different flavour and are grown at lower altitudes.
Harvesting
There are two ways of harvesting:
- With selective picking the ripe red berries are picked.
- With unselective picking they wait till about 70% of the berries is ripe and all the berries are striped at the same time. This means partly ripe, partly overripe and partly unripe berries, which ends up in a more irregular quality.
Preparation
The selective picked coffees are afterwards prepared mostly with a wet process. This means the beans are washed, fermented, washed again and then dried. This way the preparation gives a high quality coffee. Disadvantage is that this wet process is more labour intensive, therefore more expensive. The unselective picked coffees are mainly prepared with a dry process (the berries are spread on the floor in the sun) which takes about three weeks. After this process the skins of the berry can be taken off and the coffee can be made ready for export. The coffee is then shipped to the consuming countries where they start blending and roasting the coffees.
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