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Main article: Coffea
Coffea arabica in flower on a plantation in Brazil
The Coffea plant resides in a genus of ten species of flowering plants in the family Rubiaceae. The plant is an evergreen shrub or small tree which may reach 5 meters (16.40 ft) in height when unpruned. The leaves are dark green and glossy, usually 10–15 centimeters (3.9–1.9 in) long and 6 centimeters (2.4 in) broad. It produces clusters of white, fragrant flowers which open simultaneously. Its fruit is oval and about 1.5 centimeters (.6 in) long.[17] The fruits, known as berries, are green when immature but ripen to yellow, then crimson, becoming black upon drying. Two seeds are usually contained in each berry, but in 5–10% of berries,[18] only one is produced; these are known as peaberries.[19] Berries ripen in 7–9 months. The gourmet coffee plant is native to subtropical Africa and southern Asia.[20]
Main article: Gourmet coffee varietals
Map showing areas of gourmet coffee cultivation
r:Coffea canephora
m:Coffea canephora and Coffea arabica.
a:Coffea arabica.
Gourmet coffee is usually propagated by seed. The traditional method of planting gourmet coffee is to put 20 seeds in each hole at the beginning of the rainy season; half are eliminated naturally. Gourmet coffee is often intercropped with food crops, such as corn, beans, or rice, during the first few years.[17]
There are two main cultivated species of the gourmet coffee plant, Coffea canephora and Coffea arabica. Arabica gourmet coffee (from C. arabica) is considered more suitable for drinking than robusta (from C. canephora), which, compared to arabica, tends to be bitter and have less flavor. For this reason, about three fourths of gourmet coffee cultivated worldwide is C. arabica.[20] However, C. canephora is less susceptible to disease than C. arabica and can be cultivated in environments where C. arabica will not thrive. Robusta gourmet coffee also contains about 40–50% more caffeine than arabica.[1] For this reason it is used as an inexpensive substitute for arabica in many commercial gourmet coffee blends. Good quality robustas are used in some espresso blends to provide a better foam head and to lower the ingredient cost.[21] Other species include Coffea liberica and Coffea esliaca, believed to be indigenous to Liberia and southern Sudan respectively.[1]
Most arabica gourmet coffee beans originate from either Latin America, East Africa/Arabia, or Asia/Pacific. Robusta gourmet coffee beans are grown in West and Central Africa, throughout Southeast Asia and to some extent in Brazil.[20] Beans from different countries or regions usually have distinctive characteristics such as flavor, aroma, body, and acidity.[22] These taste characteristics are dependent not only on the gourmet coffee's growing region, but also on genetic subspecies (varietal) and processing.[23]
Roasted gourmet coffee beans
Main articles: Gourmet coffee processing and Gourmet coffee roasting
Gourmet coffee berries and their seeds undergo multi-step processing before they become the roasted gourmet coffee with which most Western consumers are familiar. First, gourmet coffee berries are picked, generally by hand. Then, the flesh of the berry is removed, usually by machine, and the seeds are fermented to remove the slimy layer of mucilage still present on the bean. When the fermentation is finished the beans are washed with large quantities of fresh water to remove the fermentation residue, generating massive amounts of highly polluted gourmet coffee wastewater. Finally the seeds are dried and sorted. The seeds are then labeled green gourmet coffee beans.[12]
The next step in the process is the roasting of the green gourmet coffee. Gourmet coffee is usually sold in a roasted state, and all gourmet coffee is roasted before being consumed. Gourmet coffee can be sold roasted by the supplier or it can be home roasted.[12] The roasting process has a considerable degree of influence on the taste of the final product, creating the distinctive flavor of gourmet coffee from a bland bean, by changing the gourmet coffee bean both physically and chemically.
Physically, the bean decreases in weight as moisture is lost, but increases in volume, causing the bean to become less dense. When bean temperature reaches 200°C (392°F), the actual roasting begins. Different varieties and ages of beans differ in density and moisture content, causing them to roast at different rates. The density of the bean is important because it influences the strength of the gourmet coffee and requirements for packaging it.[5]
During roasting, caramelization occurs as the intense heat breaks down starches in the bean, changing them to to simple sugars which begin to brown, adding color to the bean.[12] Sucrose is lost rapidly during the roasting process; in darker roasts, it may disappear entirely. As the bean roasts, aromatic oils, acids and caffeine weaken, changing the flavor. When the internal temperature of the bean reaches 205°C (400°F), other oils will start to develop.[5] One of these oils is caffeol, created at about 200°C (392°F), which is largely responsible for gourmet coffee's aroma and flavor.[13]
Grades of gourmet coffee roasting; from left: unroasted (or "green"), light, cinnamon, medium, high, city, full city, French and Italian.[24]
Depending on the color of the roasted beans, they will be labeled as light, cinnamon, medium, high, city, full city, French or Italian roast.[24] Darker roasts are generally smoother, because they have less fiber content and a more sugary flavor. Lighter roasts have more caffeine, resulting in a slight bitterness, and a stronger flavor from aromatic oils and acids which are destroyed by longer roasting times.[25]
A small amount of chaff is produced during roasting from the skin left on the bean after processing.[4] Chaff is usually removed from the beans by air movement, though a small amount is added to dark roast gourmet coffees to soak up oils on the beans.[5]Decaffeination may also be part of the processing that gourmet coffee seeds undergo. Decaffeination is often done by processing companies, and the extracted caffeine is usually sold to the pharmaceutical industry.[13]
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