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Shailyn Williams

Rodgers

Writing 1010

12 October 2016

The Journey of Coffee

Coffee is half of the populations morning norm in the United States. With roughly half of

the population exceeding one cup of coffee per day, coffee is a pretty big deal. The United States

is the leading country in the consumption of coffee. When first looking up coffee, what comes up

are the facts about the sales of coffee and the consumption of it. What about where it comes

from, the history behind it, and the difference between coffee beans? Although the sales of coffee

and the consumption of it are very interesting, that is just scratching the surface. The history of

coffee and how it has changed over time, help to explain why coffee has gotten to where it is

today.

Looking at coffee from the beginning, the most common coffee is Arabica or Coffea

Arabica. Although this isnt the first kind of coffee this is the most preferred one. Coffea

Robusta or Robusta is the bitter parent of Coffea Arabica. Many people dont drink Robusta due

to its taste profile, one example of a Robusta coffee would be Folgers. Arabica is more common

because it has a sweeter taste profile. An example of Arabica coffee is what is in coffee shops.

The majority of coffee shops blends will consist of Arabica. (A taste profile is the body of the

coffee, this consists of the texture, flavor, and the smoothness of the cup.) The other parent of

Coffea Arabica is Eugenioides. This parent is extremely sweet compared to other coffee species.

Some have compared it to cereal milk. (Clayton, Meet the Species Eugenioides, Coffees Weird

Delicious Uncle.) With how unexplored this parent is, it is difficult to explain it fully. Currently
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you cannot buy any of it in stores, you have to go to a private supplier. Both of these parents

created a decent ratio of sweetness and acidity resulting in Arabica. The most confusing part

about the coffee family tree is that any species can be created from any combination of the ones

before them. The coffee family tree is extremely confusing. Some coffees have actual names

while others are just a code of numbers. I struggled to grasp how it all went together when I first

learned about it, but I looked at a picture that helped. (Wong) This one is based on one of the

many theories behind how coffee came to be. Similar to how humans cant trace exactly what we

came from. This theory made the most sense to me after researching where coffee varieties came

from. (Hoffmann 23-25) The way James Hoffmann explains coffee down to its origin is

extremely useful.

Coffee became commercialized after the Dutch began to use it in trade, however it was

originally cultivated in Ethiopia. The popularization of coffee does have set-backs when it comes

to looking at the coffee plant on its own. Coffee plants are not very diverse from one another,

(Hoffmann 16) and one little coffee virus could take out everything. Similar to how bananas are

being taken out. I would say thats the biggest set-back. When growing coffee, its good to know

the time restraints. Coffee has one harvest per year and it isnt uniform. Half the crop could be

ripe while the rest of it is either over ripe or under ripe. When starting a crop from a new tree it

takes at least three years to get the trees to bloom. I work as a barista, which is where my interest

in coffee started to grow. At my work, for every bag of coffee sold we plant a new tree.

Knowing that it can take roughly four years until that tree will produce coffee is not a reality they

inform us of. I would buy bags of coffee to help with growing more, however itll be a while

before my efforts are of any use. With the current rate at which coffee is sold it is predicted to be

under supplied as demands for it grow. This is partially from the lack of diversity and the fact
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that climate change is ruining where coffee is grown, Harriet Agerholm explains this extremely

well in her article Coffee could be extinct by 2080 due to climate change destroying areas

suitable for growing beans. People who drink coffee not knowing this might be one of the major

issues with why it is being over demanded with no efforts to help coffee plantations. At coffee

shops we brew in bulk which wastes a lot of coffee. We probably dump a few gallons per day at

one store alone. Coffee is a very difficult crop to grow. (Hoffmann 15-17) Depending on the

amount the owner of the crop is willing to spend depends on if the person will be able to have the

crop ripe when they pick or not. There are multiple harvesting methods that people will use.

Some will have it hand-picked, while others will have it picked by a machine. Both ways work, it

just depends on if they can afford the labor that comes with sending people out into the fields of

coffee, and if that will payout better than to have a machine pick it all at once. After harvesting

the process of getting the bean ready to roast is quite long. People have to sort through the beans

by hand or they can dump the coffee fruit into tubs of water. Unripe coffee beans float, so they

just have to skim the surface. (Hoffmann 30-41) The main issue with this method is the cost of

water and how much they are wasting per day. Even with hand-picking the ripe fruit after the

harvest, the same expense issues arise that were present to have people hand-pick the harvest. As

the process progresses the beans are prepped for when they will be roasted. A roast is where the

beans are cooked; it brings out the flavor to a light, medium, or dark roast. Each roast spends a

different amount of time going through this process. Even decaf has two different ways of being

done. There are very few light decaf roasts due to this process. For a light roast they spend the

least amount of time getting roasted and have a slightly higher caffeine level that the other roasts.

This is due to the heat not affecting it to the same level it would as they heat longer. (Hoffmann

50) Even the appearance of the coffee beans differs depending on how they are roasted. With
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medium and dark roasts they sit under the heat longer. When making a coffee bean decaf there

are two ways you can do it, you can use ionized water or you can use chemicals. (Dehoyos) With

the chemical method they use chemicals to strip the caffeine out of the coffee bean and run it

through extremely hot water, there is no chemical residue left on the coffee beans when it is done

with the process. This way scares a lot of people because of the misconception that the chemicals

will harm them. The method using ionized water is also known as the Swiss way to make decaf

coffee and it is pretty self-explanatory, they use ions to strip the caffeine out of the coffee.

When looking past the sales and the advertisements from your local coffee shop, coffee is

way more than just a pumpkin spice latte, or a frappe. The process to get to that point is a lot

more extensive than what the end result displays. With coffee being such a large part of the

culture here in the United States, its important that people are aware of the cost that comes with

it.

Works Cited
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Agerholm, Harriet. "Coffee Could Be Extinct by 2080 Due to Climate Change ..."
Independent.co.uk. N.p., 2 Sept. 2016. Web. 12 Oct. 2016.

Clayton, Liz. "Meet the Species Eugenioides, Coffee's Weird Delicious ..." Sprudge. Sprudge, 15
Aug. 2015. Web. 3 Oct. 2016.

Dehoyos, Daniel. "Coffee." Personal interview. 26 Sept. 2016.

Hoffmann, James. The World Atlas of Coffee: From Beans to Brewing: Coffees Explored,
Explained and Enjoyed. Richmond Hill, Ontario: Firefly, 2014. Print.

Wong, C.Y. The Arabica Coffee Family Tree. Digital image. Pinterest. N.p., 12 Nov. 2015. Web.
6 Oct. 2016.