What Is Coffee?

From Coffee Basics"
© 1997 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. Pages 1-14
Kevin Knox & Julie Sheldon Huffaker

To develop a knowledgeable relationship with coffee - and particularly to learn to distinguish and appreciate its flavors-one must first understand what coffee is. The coffee bean is actually the seed, or pit, of the round, red cherry fruit of a tropical evergreen shrub. The coffee shrub grows up to 15 feet in height, and its branches grow thick with broad, waxy green leaves. In addition to the claret red clusters of coffee cherries, each coffee branch offers an abundance of luxuriant, jasmine-scented flowers.

A normal cherry contains two seeds, or beans, that grow nestled against each other. When one of these beans doesn't develop properly, the remaining bean takes over the extra space at the heart of the cherry and becomes unusually rounded. These anomalies are known as "peaberries." Because of their unique appearance, they are occasionally sorted out from the other beans and sold separately.

Today, most of us consume our coffee by the cup: processed to free the seeds from the cherry, roasted to enhance the flavors locked inside, ground finely, and brewed with fresh, hot water. Earlier devotees, however, fermented the tangy coffee fruit for liquor; there is also evidence to show they boiled the leaves for tea. Ethiopian nomads even rolled beans with animal fat to fashion a sort of traveler's quick-energy bar.

Since its discovery in Arabia around the ninth century, coffee has become one of the world's most popular agricultural products. In volume of trade, coffee is second only to oil on the world market. It is also one of the most labor-intensive food products, undergoing more than 17 processing steps on the way to the mugs of its followers.

The annual yield of a coffee tree is approximately one pound of roasted coffee or-brewed properly-about 40 cupfuls. It's a good thing this harvest is worth the wait, because coffee farmers have to do just that; on average, five years must pass before a young tree bears its first full harvest.

Arabica and Robusta

There are two major species of coffee that are grown for commercial use, Coffea robusta and Coffea arabica. Robusta grows at lower elevations, has a higher yield per plant, and is more disease resistant than its arabica relative. Robusta beans are noteworthy for their harsh, dirty flavor and abundant caffeine-twice as much caffeine, in fact, as is found in arabica beans. Relatively low costs of production make robustas favorite with North American canned, or "institutional," coffee roasters.

The arabica species, which grows best at higher elevations, is the source of all of the world's great coffees. While there is more poor-tasting arabica than robusta in the world, this is simply a result of the fact that monumentally more arabica is grown. About 75 percent of the world's total production is arabica; at most, 10 percent of that is actually of "specialty" quality.

"Specialty" Quality Coffee

Specialty coffee distinguishes itself first and foremost by the quality of the raw material. The term "specialty coffee" also connotes a greater level of attention paid to the processing and roasting than is characteristically associated with coffee that comes in a can. Henceforth, when we talk about growing conditions and coffee in general, the specialty-grade arabicas are the beans we're talking about.

To narrow the pot still further, of the 10 percent of arabicas that can legitimately be called specialty coffee, only 1 or 2 percent qualifies as superlative representatives of their growing regions, or grand crus ("great growths"). Such beans provide the pinnacle flavors and aromas we coffee lovers are looking for, and when we talk about taste in the cup, these are the coffees to which we refer. The stunning reward of a balance of factors including plant pedigree, altitude, microclimate, and cultivation, these magnificent coffees are the ones we encourage you to seek out and sample.

Here's a quick semantic distinction you may find useful: People often refer to single-origin coffees, the pure, unblended coffees that come from a single country or region, as "varietals." Used this way, the term is more colloquial and convenient than botanically correct. Remember the hierarchy from high school biology- kingdom, phylum, class, and so on? "Species" falls at the end of the line, and "variety" is a subunit of species.

The use of the word varietal, therefore, is a bit misleading. When people say "varietal," they're not talking about a distinct "variety" within species arabica; what they really mean is a single-origin coffee. To avoid confusion, whenever we refer to unblended beans we will call them single-origin coffees.

Hybrids vs. Heirlooms

As is the case with many domesticated agricultural products today, the issue of growing heirloom varieties versus modern hybrids is a great concern in the specialty coffee industry. Older versions of the arabica plant are preferred by many specialty coffee buyers for their superior and distinctive taste qualities. Older heirloom types, such as bourbon and typica, are still widely planted in East Africa, Yemen, Guatemala, and El Salvador. Significant pockets can be found in other countries as well.

At the same time, modern hybrids such as caturra, catimor, and the hardy variedad Colombiana have become increasingly popular with growers. In general, hybrids produce more beans per plant and are less susceptible to disease than the heirloom types. Unfortunately, hybrids are also generally considered by tasters in the industry to be more bland in the cup.

Specialty coffee buyers concerned about flavor and the future existence of fine coffee encourage growers to continue cultivating heirloom plants. They are also willing to pay the higher prices that support growers in doing so.

The coffee tree requires a frost-free climate, moderate rainfall, and plenty of sunshine. The regions where coffee grows, known as "origin regions," are grouped loosely under three geographical nameplates: the Americas, Africa and Arabia, and Indonesia. Within these regions, coffee grows in almost 80 different countries. It can grow at altitudes ranging from sea level to 6,000 feet, in all sorts of different soils and microclimates.

The environment required for growing fine specialty coffee, however, is found only in select mountainous regions in the tropics-between the Tropic of Capricorn and the Tropic of Cancer, to be exact. These aristocrats demand high altitudes, usually between 4,000 and 6,000 feet, to produce their stunning and concentrated flavors. They need an annual rainfall of about 80 inches, with distinct rainy and dry seasons. The soil in which fine coffees grow must be extremely fertile, and is often volcanic. Regular mist and cloud cover are also necessary for protection from overexposure to sunlight at these latitudes.

For such high-quality coffee to thrive, year-round daytime temperatures must average 60-700F, which by tropical standards is quite cool. The result is a longer, slower growth cycle, yielding beans that are denser and far more intense in flavor than their lower-grown neighbors. In some growing regions, most notably Guatemala and Costa Rica, beans are graded by elevation. The highest-grown of these are called "strictly hard bean" (SHB). In origin countries, you might also hear high-grown coffees described as being stronger" (in taste, mind you-not caffeine content).

Because they are harder and more dense, high-grown beans can be roasted darker and still retain their integrity. Here's an example: At a darker roast, a premium Guatemalan Antigua offers plush, Belgian-chocolate body and considerable flavor complexity. At the same roast, beans grown at lower elevations are left with little other than the roasty, smokey flavors of the roasting process itself.

The beans grown downslope are still good coffee, but compared in the cup to those of higher elevations they are simple, mild, and uncomplicated. To borrow a wine taster's term, they are vin ordinaire, "ordinary wine," and nothing to write home about. Again, for true complexity and dimensionality of flavor, green-coffee buyers look to the lofty mountains, bright sunshine, fertile soil, and warm but not hot climes-the land, as the people of Guatemala call their highlands, of "eternal spring."

In addition to meeting these narrowly defined growing criteria, fine coffee requires special handling during its harvest. Coffee cherries ripen at differing rates-even on the same tree and branch, and in the same cluster. To ensure optimal flavor, cherries must be picked at their respective peaks. Each cherry is picked individually, by hand. Coffee pickers return many times to the same tree over the course of a harvest, and pick through each day's efforts with care in order to spot and discard any underripe fruit.

Wet and Dry Processing

After the ripe cherries have been plucked from their trees, the next task is to get at the seeds, or coffee beans, inside. To separate the beans from their cherries, a total of four layers must be removed: the tough, shiny outer skin; the sticky, mucilaginous pulp of the fruit; a stiff parchment casing; and the thin, delicate "silverskin" that clings to each bean.

There are two methods used to isolate the beans: the washed process and the dry process. The method used depends largely on the availability of fresh water and is one of the most important determinants of coffee flavor.

The washed, or wet, method involves mechanically removing the pulp from the beans. After depulping, top-quality wet-processed coffees are transferred to large fermentation tanks, usually through a sluice of some kind.

In the fermentation tanks, a carefully monitored and controlled enzymatic reaction allows the sticky fruit to swell and loosen from the beans inside. Many first-time plantation visitors are surprised to discover that these tanks of coffee smell remarkably like new-made wine. Fermentation may last from 12 to 36 hours, depending on atmospheric conditions and the nature of the coffee itself. Carefully executed, fermentation yields the crisp, fruity acidity and aromatic high notes that define the world's great washed coffees.

The path from ripe to rotten is short. If this stage is not arrested at the exact moment fermentation is complete, an entire batch of coffee can be ruined. The dreaded taste defect known as "ferment" will occur and lend its unmistakably offensive taste to the beans. When ferment is present, even a neophyte taster knows something has gone horribly wrong; its taste could be described, quite frankly, as latrine-like. The control of fermentation is invariably the job of the most experienced workers on a coffee plantation.

When fermentation is complete, the beans are washed free from the loosened fruit. The coffee beans, with parchment layer intact, are left to dry on large patios. To ensure even drying, the beans must be raked and thereby turned several times each day.

Washed coffees are brighter and offer cleaner, more consistent flavors than those processed by the dry method. Not surprisingly, the wet method predominates in Latin America, the very region whose coffees we associate with these characteristics. In more industrialized coffee-growing countries like Costa Rica, traditional wet processing is being replaced with a variation called aqua-pulping. With this method, the coffee is just depulped, rinsed, and dried. Sadly, such coffee can't express the high notes and varietal charm characteristic of traditionally washed beans.

In comparison to the wet method, the dry or natural method seems quite simple. Coffee cherries are spread to dry in open sunlight, usually on patios or tarps, for several weeks. The shriveled husks of dried fruit are then winnowed away, leaving only the interior parchment and beans.

Dry-processed coffees are generally heavier bodied and more variable in flavor than wet-processed beans. You will find-and learn to taste-that most Indonesian coffees are dry-processed, as are some of the more traditional coffees of Africa and Arabia.

Milling and Sorting

After being processed via the wet or dry method, coffee beans are milled to remove their stiff parchment and light, translucent silverskin. They are then sorted by size and density At every step of the way, in fact, the milling and sorting processes work to bring like beans together, and this is critically important to good roasting. Defects, which may include broken or underripe beans and small stones, twigs, or other foreign material, are also removed during milling and sorting.

Separated from defects and shed of their trappings, coffee beans are known to the trade as "green coffee." In truth, unadulterated "green" beans range in color from opalescent blue to a matte gray-green. Compared to roasted coffee, which has a shelf life that is measured in days, green coffee is fairly stable, with a shelf life of up to one year.

From There to Here

How long does it take coffee to get from "picking point," or harvest, to the roaster? For properly selected coffee, it takes a while. The stretch of time between the moment coffee is harvested and the day it is received by the roaster is typically a minimum of two to three months. The prime picking point in Central America, for example, is January through March; the better Central American coffees harvested in March will begin reaching U.S. roasters in June and July.

Savvy green-coffee buyers avoid first shipments from any origin. These tend to comprise early pickings-less flavorful coffee that's been rushed to market. While top-quality Costa Rican coffees may be shipped as early as February, the best usually go out in April or May. These start arriving in U.S. ports by mid-summer.

Why does it take so long for green coffee to reach us? As you know, once harvested, the coffee will be wet-processed or dry-processed. It will be milled and sorted, then carefully dried to within 10 to 12 percent moisture, rendering it chemically stable. The sum of these processes can take up to 14 days. At the finest farms, the coffee will then sit in what is called reposo, or "rest," for 30 to 60 days. Much like the cask conditioning of beer and wine, the function of reposo is to allow coffee to settle down, to reach equilibrium with regard to its temperature and humidity. This step greatly extends its useful shelf life in green form, which again, is of substantial benefit to the roaster.

Following these days of rest, the coffee is transported by sea to its destination country. Travel from Central America to the United States may occupy the better part of a month. For coffees that start out further away, such as in Kenya or Papua New Guinea, the trip may take up to twice as long, or two full months.

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