Coffee, plant
Coffee is a tropical plant that grows at 600-1800m above sea level. Coffee is usually called a beverage prepared by cooking roasted, ground beans. The product given by the coffee plant has the appearance of a red cherry with two seeds. After separation from the fruit puree, we obtain beans that are generally known as “green beans” from coffee (Buffo and Freire, 2003). Coffee berries, which contain green beans, produce an evergreen plant of the genus Coffea. The two most common types are Caffee canephnora (also known as Caffe robusta) and Caffee Arabica.
The coffee plant (lat. Coffea) is a genus of evergreen shrubs or low trees from lat. Rubiacceae. The leaves are oppositely arranged in three-membered vertebrae, the flowers are white, located in the leaf axils, and the fruits of the pits or berries resemble the fruit of a cherry.
The fruit of the coffee tree is called a stone or cherry and acquires a bright red color only when it is fully ripe, after six to twelve months, and then its diameter is up to 15 millimeters. The outer skin (exocarp), which is shiny and thick, envelops the sweet, fleshy pulp (mesocarp).
Two layers cover the grain for protection: a thicker, whiter layer, in direct contact with the grain, parchment (endocarp) and a thin layer commonly called silvery skin (spermoderm). Each fruit contains two seeds or grains. The direct sides of these two grains face each other, and in the middle of each side passes a deep groove. The other side is bulging.
The grain measures about 10 mm and weighs about 0,15 g. The Arabica grain is flatter, more elongated, and their central groove is wavy. They vary in color from light to dark green with bluish hues. Solid grains are round, more bent and their groove goes straight. They are pale green, with a tone of brown or gray.
There are two types of coffee beans according to shape (Popov-Raljić and Stojšin, 2007): normal beans (beans with a slightly flattened side), pearl beans (oval beans).
The genus includes about 40 species that grow in paleotropic areas, mostly in Africa. Three types give coffee:
Arabica coffee - which originates from Ethiopia, the area of Kafa, has a flower divided into five lobes and today is mainly grown in Brazil
Coffea liberica - Originally from Liberia and Guinea, it has a flower that is divided into 6 -8 lobes
Coffea stenophylla - native to Sierra Leone, has narrow leaves and a flower with 5 - 7 lobes.
Arabica is a very high quality coffee, with excellent properties, it is the most valued and has the highest price, and in the total world production it is represented by as much as 75-80% (picture). It grows at an altitude of 600 to 2000 meters. In nature, it grows on a tree that can reach a height of up to 6 meters, but the coffee tree on plantations, for easier picking, is shortened to a height of up to 3 meters. It is grown in tropical and equatorial parts of America, Africa and Asia, where it is always spring or moderate summer.
Young shoots need three years to begin to bloom. And only next year, after the first flowering, it can give the first genus. It achieves full fertility only in the sixth year. One tree gives an average of 1 to 3 kilograms of fruit, and in Brazil (where the harvest is only once a year) the harvest lasts from May to August. The taste of the drink prepared from Arabica coffee can be described as fragrant, sweet, rounded, slightly sour and often chocolatey, with a pleasant note of bitterness.
In our country, as well as in the world, the most famous species of Arabica are "minas" and "santos", and these are the names that originate from the area of Brazil where they are grown. In addition to these, there are a number of other species - "sigri" from New Guinea, a descendant of the "blue mountain" from Jamaica; "Maragogip" from Mexico with the highest cereals and the lowest caffeine content; Costa Rica treasures; “Moka harar” from Ethiopia with a taste reminiscent of chocolate; as well as “AA Jumbo” from Kenya, characterized as the best African Arab.
