From Seed to Cup

The coffee you enjoy each day has taken a long journey to arrive in your cup. Between the time they’re planted, picked and purchased, coffee beans go through a typical series of steps to bring out their best.

• The coffee you enjoy each day has taken a long journey to arrive in your cup. Between the time they’re planted, picked and purchased, coffee beans go through a typical series of steps to bring out their best.
• A coffee bean is actually a seed. When dried, roasted and ground, it’s used to brew coffee. If the seed isn’t processed, it can be planted and grow into a coffee tree. Coffee seeds are generally planted in large beds in shaded nurseries. The seedlings will be watered frequently and shaded from bright sunlight until they are hearty enough to be permanently planted. Planting often takes place during the wet season, so that the soil remains moist while the roots become firmly established.
• Depending on the variety, it will take approximately 3 to 4 years for the newly planted coffee trees to bear fruit. The fruit, called the coffee cherry, turns a bright, deep red when it is ripe and ready to be harvested. There is typically one major harvest a year. It is considered to be the start of the way coffee beans make to become a real drink in your cup.

Coffee Production Today

Coffee grows in around eighty countries in South and Central America, the Caribbean, Africa and Asia. Arabica coffee accounts for about three-quarters of coffee cultivated worldwide. It is grown throughout Latin America, Central and East Africa, India and, to some extent, Indonesia. Robusta coffee is grown in West and Central Africa, throughout South-East Asia and, to some extent. in Brazil. Brazil is the largest coffee exporting nation, but Vietnam tripled its exports between 1995 and 1999, and became a major producer of Robusta beans. Indonesia is the third-largest exporter and the largest producer of washed Arabica coffee.