News Bites

  1. Coffee Trees, Harvest, and Country of Origin

Coffee is the seed of a tropical plant belonging to the "Rubiacee" family. It grows between 400 and 2000 meters of altitude and at a temperature between 20° and 25°c.

The trees begin their production after 4 years, they reach the full productivity at the seventh year and they continue to be fruitful until the thirtieth.

The species cultivated are about sixty but the two most important are the coffea Arabica and the coffea Canephora, also known as Robusta, that represent the majority of the world production.

The Arabica quality lives in Brazil and in Ethiopia while the Robusta one in Africa and Asia. There is an evident difference between the two trees: the Robusta reaches an height of 10 meters and grows in lower altitudes and at temperature higher than 30°C. It produces more beans which are full-bodied, but bland and inferior in taste to Arabica coffee. The Arabica reaches 6/8 meters of height and it is more delicacy.

The Arabica beans are long and flat and they give the fragrance and the sweetness to the espresso. The Robusta ones are small and squat and they add body to espresso.

The fruits produced by the trees are similar to cherries and they are ripe when red coloured. Inside are two seeds covered by a silver membrane: the coffee beans.

 

 

The harvesting of this fruits is done manually, choosing only the ripe ones, or through an equipment which plucks also the unripe fruits. Then they can be treated with two procedures: a dry procedure , letting the fruits desiccate at the sun and then removing the peel and the dry pulp, or a damp one, letting the fruits lie in big basins of water until they are rid from their pulp.

Now the coffee beans are ready to be packed in 60 kilos sacks and marketed all over the world.

 

 

2. The Roasting

The roasting is, together with the blending, the most important moment in the production cycle: flavour and aroma are arranged to create a full-bodied, flavoured and balanced blend.

The roasting is performed at a 200-220° C temperature and it lasts about 10-15 minutes. During this phase the beans loose humidity and, because of the formation of internal gas, they swell increasing their volume of about 60%, loosing the 20% of their weigh. From hard and elastic the beans become crumbly and their colour from green becomes brown.

After the roasting the beans are quickly cooled in a container equipped with mechanical blades which mix the beans while they are cooled by cold air flows.

In order to preserve the fragrance, the coffee must not stay a long time in the open air, so it is stocked in appropriate silos, waiting for the blending.

 

3. Coffe and Health

Coffee is characterised by caffeine. The contents of this substance vary in accordance with the kind of coffee: from 0,8 to 1,6% for the Arabica quality, from 1,5 to 3% for the Robusta quality. Caffeine, consumed in fair dose, stimulates the human body and reduces the tiredness. It is a good diuretic and it has a positive effect on the migraine.

So don’t worry, drink coffee!!!!!!!

4. Consumption and Economic News Bites

In the world trade coffee is one of the most important component. The yearly production is settled at about 5,5 millions tons.

The average world consumption per person is stationary: 4,34 kilos yearly. But there is a big difference in accordance with the geographic area: 4,4 kilos in the USA, 5,2 kilos in the UE. In this area the consumption is different among the Countries: from 8,3 kilos in Germany to 2,37 in Portugal. Italy is ranked at the 11th position among the Europeans countries; this unexpected result is due to the fact that coffee is consumed in precise moments of the day, whereas in other countries it is an habit and it is often used as a beverage during the meals. However Italy is the country of espresso and this name is spreading all over the world.