Trees, Beans, Cherries and Berries – How Does a Coffee Grow?

When you think about how much coffee is consumed daily all over the world, it’s curious how narrow a range of conditions is required to produce quality ‘beans’ and how relatively small the total output is for a tree that is grown in over 70 countries.

The word ‘beans’ in single-quote marks with a purpose, since the thing that gets roasted and ground to make the drink isn’t really a bean at all, it’s actually a seed.

In particular, it’s the seed of a fruit that grows on trees that can easily reach twenty feet or more. Some wild varieties grow to over 45 feet or 15m. Most of those seeds come in a pair, though there is a variety that produces only one (the peaberry). The berry (also called cherry) resembles a cranberry, with a sweet pulp covered by a membrane called a silverskin. Coffee beans are removed from the coffee cherries, which is either discarded or used as fertilizer.

Main species of coffee plant include Coffea arabica, Coffea benghalensis, Coffea canephora, Coffea congensis, Coffea excelsa, Coffea gallienii, Coffea bonnieri, Coffea mogeneti, Coffea liberica, and Coffea stenophylla. Coffea arabica (arabica) and Coffea canephora (robusta) are most grown species of them all.

There is approximately 25 degrees north or south zone around the equator, where from comes most of the world’s coffee output. Temperatures of between 60F (15C) and 70F (21C) are best as is rainfall of six inches per month or more.

Loamy, good-draining soil is needed and also helpful is high humidity – plenty of mist and cloud at the high elevations, over 3000 ft (915m) for the good stuff. At these elevations the oxygen content is lower, so the trees take longer to mature.

The robusta (a species of coffee which has its origins in western Africa) makes approximately one third of the coffee produced in the world because it can be grown at lower altitudes, is more disease resistant and cheaper to produce. But it’s the high-altitude coffea arabica that forms the base of a gourmet cup.

Diffuse light and moderate winds are helpful, both of which are sometimes produced by deliberately growing in the shelter and shade. By contrast, wine grapes like hot sun and lots of it.

Once planted, the tree starts to produce flowers after 3-4 years and the first crop can be taken 5 years after planting. In most countries where coffee is grown, there is one major harvest a year, however there are also countries (like Colombia) with two flowerings a year which result in a main and secondary crop.

A single tree will only make enough for about two pounds (1 kilogram) of coffee. Those two pounds equal about two thousand beans, (correct or not, it’s the standard term), usually hand-picked by manual laborers. Manual they may be, but ignorant they are not. Coffee bean harvesting is a skill developed over time, where the picker learns to select good beans and discard the bad. Bean by individual bean. That’s only one reason coffee is high priced.

The trees have broad, dark green leaves and produce a flower that resembles Jasmine. Some – in Brazil and Mexico, for example, – blossom over a six to eight week period. In countries that lie along the equator such as Kenya and Colombia, though, a tree can have mature berries growing alongside still ripening ones. That’s part of what makes picking such a specialty.

Blossom to harvest may cover a period of up to nine months depending on the weather and other factors and the cycle will be carried out for the life of the tree – about 20-25 years. With the best cultivation technology, a good harvest will be between 6,600 lbs (3,000 kg) and 8,800 lbs (4,000 kg) per hectare. (One hectare equals approximately 2.47 acres.)

From these inaccessible regions, where conditions are harsh, the berries are brought down and processed to make up the world’s second largest commodity (by annual dollar volume).

That’s quite a journey it takes for a coffee to reach from a tree to a cup, isn’t it?