The Art and Craft of Coffee (3 page)

Coffee Plants and Botanical Classifications

Let’s break down the coffee plant. Botanically, coffee is a shrub, part of the Rubiaceae family. Only three of the seventy-three classified species—Arabica, Robusta, and Liberica—have commercial significance in today’s world market. They yield from three to twelve tons (2.8 to 10.9 metric tons) per hectare (2.5 acres). Each cultivar requires a specific number of trees to create descendants.

Arabica

Arabica (
Coffea arabica
), the original plant discovered and cultivated for today’s coffee beverage, likely originated in present-day Ethiopia. Though Arabica naturally contains the least caffeine, it possesses the subtlest, most desirable flavors.

Arabica trees typically grow between twelve and twenty feet (3.7 and 6 m) high. Most Arabica coffee picking happens by hand. This is partly due to its growth on mountainous land usually unreachable by machine but mostly because a human coffee picker, using a ladder or a hook, chooses the ripest beans. The best farms pick multiple times a season—three is common—to ensure selection of ripe beans.

There are two varieties of Arabica: Bourbon and Typica. From these two varieties other subvarieties, known as cultivars, are derived.

Bourbon

Many people consider coffee produced by this Arabica heirloom the world’s best quality. The problem is that Bourbon requires significant space and care, is disease-prone, and its trees, which take longer to bear fruit, have a short life cycle. Bourbon yields roughly one-third more beans than Typica and its cherries ripen faster, but they are more fragile. Bourbon grows best at elevations between 3,500 and 6,500 feet (1,067 to 1,981 m).

Typica

This variety, often considered the original coffee type, has a cone shape and grows at a slant. Though it grows well (slightly better than Bourbon) and taller than most varietals, ten to thirteen feet (3 to 4 m) tall, it tends toward lower yields. For the scope of this book, consider Bourbon and Typica equals.

Caturra

This cultivar, discovered in Brazil and developed from Bourbon cuttings, was designed as a hardy, yet high-maintenance plant. It flourishes at elevations below 3,500 feet (1,067 m) with easy-to-pick cherries that grow close to the ground. Many well-regarded coffee growing countries, such as Costa Rica, plant almost entirely Caturra.

Other Arabica Varietals

Which cultivar a coffee farm plants depends on the farm’s terroir, climate, and disease resistance first, with productivity and yield considered second. Quality follows last, if at all, because a coffee that won’t grow isn’t a good crop.

A list of the main Arabica cultivars (in addition to Bourbon, Typica, and Caturra) and their basic characteristics follows:

Blue Mountain

The unique Blue Mountain cultivar, the majority of which grows in Jamaica, likely descends from Typica, though its exact origins remain unknown. It is a long bean, known for its huge flavor and disease-resistance, but it does not flourish in other geographic regions. Blue Mountain does best at altitudes above 5,000 feet (1,524 m).

Catimor

Catimor, developed in Portugal in the 1950s, comes from the Timor cultivar. It grows quickly, produces high yields at middle altitudes, and is particularly resistant to rust disease, making it attractive to many farmers. It is a hybrid of Arabia and Robusta, and it is considered incapable of being the best coffee. It needs significant fertilization and rainfall.

Catuai

This variety is a cross between Caturra and the hearty Mundo novo. It is wind-resistant and sturdy, making it suitable for stormy environments. Like Caturra, it is high-maintenance but produces quality coffee.

Maragogype

This Typica descendant, first found in Brazil, grows bigger and taller than heirloom cultivars. It doesn’t produce a high yield, but its beans are large. Two descendants of Mariogype are more popular. Pacamara is a hyrbrid with Paca, grown in Panama. It offers large size and prize-winning aroma and taste. Geisha is a hybrid of Maragogype from Ethiopia, first grown in the early twentieth century. It is prized by connoisseurs seeking a large bean and voluptuous flavor.

Pache Comum

This Guatemala-discovered cultivar likely descends from Typica, though its coffee is not considered as high quality. This hardy plant does well at elevations between 3,500 and 6,000 feet (1,067 and 1,827 m).

Timor

Named for an Indonesian island and known for its parentage of the Catimor cultivar, Timor was believed discovered during the 1860s coffee blight. It is a cross between Arabica and Robusta. Some industry mavens consider Timor a savior, as it seems to offer the best Arabica taste with Robusta’s disease resistance. But it is dreaded by some as offering too little taste and is, by them, considered Robusta disguised as Arabica.

Had a serious plant disease not spread throughout several key coffee growing regions in the 1860s, Arabica might have remained the world’s only cultivated coffee. Instead two other coffee genera developed: Robusta and Liberica.

Robusta

Coffee growers once touted Robusta (
Coffea canephora
), with twice Arabica’s caffeine content and a high disease resistance, as Arabica’s best replacement. Robusta coffee trees are shorter, making their fruit easier to pick, and they require less space between trees, allowing more to fit on one plot. In terms of care and feeding, Robusta quickly became a world commodity.

On the flip side, Robusta offers none of Arabica’s flavor nuance. There are good Robustas, but they are comparable in quality to low-grade Arabica. This coffee type is sold and traded as a commodity in the United States and Europe. The best is sold almost exclusively as espresso blends. Robusta’s best attribute is its body.

Liberica

In the 1870s, as leaf rust diseases ran amok through Arabica coffee fields, author Francis Thurber predicted that Liberica (
Coffea liberica
) could replace Arabica. His prediction never came true. Liberica’s flavor didn’t match the best Arabica coffee, and its per-plant yield disappointed next to Robusta’s. Meanwhile, hardier Arabica variants such as Caturra replaced more vulnerable Bourbon growths.

Today, Liberica thrives in Southeast Asia. Occasionally, a small green amount is available online, but it has no real market penetration in the United States or Europe.

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Ripe coffee cherries. This photo shows the color that coffee connoisseurs imagine all their beans are at harvest time.

Coffee Varieties by Grade (or Marketing Scare Tactics)

Phrases such as
grade
,
fair trade
, and
organic
grace many a coffee bean label. Any savvy buyer should know the terms’ real meanings. For information about processing coffee beans, see
chapter 2
, “Selecting Coffee Beans.”

Grade

In the commercial world, grade is important. But at the specialty level few connoisseurs use grades as flavor or quality indicators. Most coffee regions use grading terms to indicate size. Supremo grade Colombian beans, for example, are larger than Excelsco grade Colombian beans. Also, most grade variables do not assess bean ripeness at picking or other taste-related qualities. Marigogipe describes oversized beans of various origins. Peaberry is not a hybrid but an anomaly, a small, round bean resulting from its twin in the cherry not developing. Some say a peaberry’s flavor is more concentrated. Most agree that a peaberry bean’s shape results in its roasting differently, and for this reason they are sought.

Organic

For a product to earn United States’ organic designation, it must meet standards set by the U.S. Department of Agriculture: Beans must be grown using no synthetic pesticides or other prohibited substances for at least three years and the farm must follow a sustainable crop rotation plan.

Other places around the world have different requirements. In the European Union, for example, organic farming includes, at a minimum, crop rotation, strict limits on chemical synthetic pesticide and fertilizer, prohibition of genetically modified organisms, and fair treatment of animals.

The organic label is of significant interest to a small, but growing segment of consumers and certainly important for the environment. But it’s hard for some farmers. It requires certification, which in the United States costs about 300 dollars a year. A coffee farm in a developing country may earn just 1,000 dollars per year. The cost automatically excludes smaller family farms. Also, farms deemed non-organic may use environmentally responsible techniques such as contouring their land that just won’t earn them organic certification. Organic certification alone is not a fair litmus test.

Sustainable Farming

Sustainable farming means the farmer has a balanced view toward chemicals, with an eye on the big picture and the long-term use of the land. It usually comprises organic practices, good land contouring, and thoughtful recycling whenever possible. For example, a sustainable farm in Guatemala saves the rinse water it uses to process the beans and pours it over the coffee fields to add nutrients back to the soil, conserving water in the process. Sustainability is difficult to standardize and certify because each farm requires individual, thoughtful accommodations.

Fair Trade

Fair trade generally means that a third party oversees the agreement and interactions between seller and buyer to ensure that the seller—farmers, in coffee’s case—earn a fair price. Note that most fair trade organizations only certify cooperatives, not individual farms. But that doesn’t mean they don’t practice fair business or treat their workers well.

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Raw beans in various shapes and colors. They are often sold labeled as organic or fair trade. Learn what these terms mean.

Direct Trade

This relatively new concept in the coffee industry implies a personal relationship between roaster or coffee buyer (but not consumer) and farmer. It means direct trade coffee roasters must have enough resources to visit farms regularly. Despite its limitations, direct trade is a promising label, increasing the likelihood of good quality coffee.

Bird-Friendly/Shade Grown

Many birds winter in warmer climates—many of which happen to be coffee-producing countries—nesting in plantation trees planted to shade the coffee from too much direct sunlight. These same trees offer birds seasonal habitat. So bird-friendly coffee benefits coffee flavor and birds. It also means certification that a farm uses no synthetic chemicals. The cost of this certification is yield; a bird-friendly farm yields approximately one-third less per year.

Lack of such a label does not automatically mean the coffee is unfriendly to birds or of poorer quality. There are other ways to shade coffee trees besides trees. Mountainsides offer similar shade benefits, and some geographic regions feature natural cloud cover. So although being bird-friendly is generally favorable, it’s not a conclusive quality indicator.

Q-Grading

While the environment and worker treatment are noble causes, neither directly addresses coffee’s number one attraction: flavor. In the U.S., the Specialty Coffee Association of America’s Coffee Quality Institute is trying to establish a different standard for grading and trading coffee. The quality part of Q-grading includes an 80 point rating system. Q-grading is a step forward for coffee quality as the industry attempts to find a single label that consumers can use to find good quality and sustainable and fair labor practices in their beans.

Estate Coffee

Estate
has replaced the term
plantation
(which has a negative connotation) in this phrase, though no legal definition applies. At best, it means production by a single farm. The right farm uses careful, consistent growing, picking, and processing methods. Potentially, some of the best and most unique coffees come from individual farms. But use of this term provides no real information about what to expect from the product.