Coffee is a popular brewed drink, and Recreational drug prepared from roasted seeds,

commonly called coffee beans, of the coffee plant. They are seeds of coffee cherries that
grow on trees in over 70 countries. Green unroasted coffee is one of the most traded
agricultural commodities in the world.[1] Due to its caffeine content, coffee often has a
stimulating effect on humans. Today, coffee is one of the most popular beverages
worldwide, second only to tea.[2] The energizing effect of the coffee bean plant is thought
to have been discovered in the northeast region of Ethiopia, and the cultivation of coffee
first expanded in the Arab world.[3] The earliest credible evidence of coffee drinking
appears in the middle of the fifteenth century, in the Sufi monasteries of Yemen in
southern Arabia.[3] From the Muslim world, coffee spread to Italy, then to the rest of
Europe, to Indonesia, and to the Americas.[4]

Coffee has played a crucial role in many societies throughout history. In Africa and
Yemen, it was used in religious ceremonies. As a result, the Ethiopian Church banned its
secular consumption, a ban in effect until the reign of Emperor Menelik II of Ethiopia.[5]
It was banned in Ottoman Turkey during the 17th century for political reasons,[6] and was
associated with rebellious political activities in Europe. Coffee berries, which contain the
coffee seed, or "bean", are produced by several species of small evergreen bush of the
genus Coffea. The two most commonly grown are the highly regarded Coffea arabica,
and the 'robusta' form of the hardier Coffea canephora. The latter is resistant to the
devastating coffee leaf rust (Hemileia vastatrix). Both are cultivated primarily in Latin
America, Southeast Asia, and Africa. Once ripe, coffee berries are picked, processed, and
dried. The seeds are then roasted to varying degrees, depending on the desired flavor.
They are then ground and brewed to create coffee. Coffee can be prepared and presented
in a variety of ways.

An important export commodity, coffee was the top agricultural export for twelve
countries in 2004,[7] and it was the world's seventh-largest legal agricultural export by
value in 2005.[8] Some controversy is associated with coffee cultivation and its impact on
the environment. Many studies have examined the relationship between coffee
consumption and certain medical conditions; whether the overall effects of coffee are
ultimately positive or negative has been widely disputed.[9] The method of brewing coffee
has been found to be important to its health effects.[10]

Several species of shrub of the genus Coffea produce the berries from which coffee is
extracted. The two main species commercially cultivated are Coffea canephora
(predominantly a form known as 'robusta') and C. arabica.[13] C. arabica, the original and
most highly regarded species, is native to the southwestern highlands of Ethiopia and the
Boma Plateau in southeastern Sudan and possibly Mount Marsabit in northern Kenya.[14]
C. canephora is native to western and central subsaharan Africa, from Guinea to the
Uganda and southern Sudan.[15] Less popular species are C. liberica, excelsa, stenophylla,
mauritiana, and racemosa.

All coffee plants are classified in the large family Rubiaceae. They are evergreen shrubs
or small trees that may grow 5 m (15 ft) tall when unpruned. The leaves are dark green
and glossy, usually 10–15 cm (4–6 in) long and 6 cm (2.4 in) wide. The flowers are
axillary, and clusters of fragrant white flowers bloom simultaneously and are followed by
oval berries of about 1.5 cm (0.6 in).[16] Green when immature, they ripen to yellow, then
crimson, before turning black on drying. Each berry usually contains two seeds, but 5–
10% of the berries[17] have only one; these are called peaberries.[18] Berries ripen in seven
to nine months.

Coffea arabica is predominantly self-pollinating, and as a result the seedlings are

generally uniform and vary little from their parents. In contrast, Coffea canephora, C.
excelsa and C. liberica are self-incompatible and require outcrossing. This means that
useful forms and hybrids must be propagated vegetatively.[19] Cuttings, grafting, and
budding are the usual methods of vegetative propagation.[20] On the other hand, there is
great scope for experimentation in search of potential new strains.[19]

Coffee is usually propagated by seeds. The traditional method of planting coffee is to put
20 seeds in each hole at the beginning of the rainy season; half are eliminated naturally.
A more effective method of growing coffee, used in Brazil, is to raise seedlings in
nurseries that are then planted outside at six to twelve months. Coffee is often
intercropped with food crops, such as corn, beans, or rice during the first few years of
cultivation.[16]

Of the two main species grown, arabica coffee (from C. arabica) is generally more highly
regarded than robusta coffee (from C. canephora); robusta tends to be bitter and have less
flavor but better body than arabica. For these reasons, about three-quarters of coffee
cultivated worldwide is C. arabica.[13] Robusta strains also contain about 40–50% more
caffeine than arabica.[21] For this reason, it is used as an inexpensive substitute for arabica
in many commercial coffee blends. Good quality robusta beans are used in some espresso
blends to provide a full-bodied taste, a better foam head (known as crema), and to lower
the ingredient cost.[22]

However, Coffea canephora is less susceptible to disease than C. arabica and can be
cultivated in lower altitudes and warmer climates where C. arabica will not thrive. The
robusta strain was first collected in 1890 from the Lomani, a tributary of the Congo
River, and was conveyed from Zaire to Brussels to Java around 1900. From Java, further
breeding resulted in the establishment of robusta plantations in many countries.[23] In
particular, the spread of the devastating coffee leaf rust (Hemileia vastatrix), to which C.
arabica is vulnerable, hastened the uptake of the resistant robusta. Coffee leaf rust is
found in virtually all countries that produce coffee.[24]

Over 900 species of insect have been recorded as pests of coffee crops worldwide. Of
these, over a third are beetles, and over a quarter are bugs. Some 20 species of
nematodes, 9 species of mites, several snails and slugs also attack the crop. Birds and
rodents sometimes eat coffee berries but their impact is minor compared to invertebrates.
[25]
In general, arabica is the more sensitive species to invertebrate predation overall.
Each part of the coffee plant is assailed by different animals. Nematodes attack the roots,
and borer beetles burrow into stems and woody material,[26] the foliage is attacked by over
100 species of larvae (caterpillars) of butterflies and moths.[27]
Mass spraying of insecticides has often proven disastrous, as the predators of the pests
are more sensitive than the pests themselves.[28] Instead, integrated pest management has
developed, using techniques such as targeted treatment of pest outbreaks, and managing
crop environment away from conditions favouring pests. Branches infested with scale are
often cut and left on the ground, which promotes scale parasites to not only attack the
scale on the fallen branches but in the plant as well.[29]

Preparing green coffee

Coffee berries and their seeds undergo several processes before they become the familiar
roasted coffee. Berries have been traditionally selectively picked by hand; a labor
intensive method, it involves the selection of only the berries at the peak of ripeness.
More commonly, crops are strip picked, where all berries are harvested simultaneously
regardless of ripeness by person or machine. After picking, green coffee is processed by
one of two methods—the dry process method, simpler and less labor intensive as the
berries can be strip picked, and the wet process method, which incorporates fermentation
into the process and yields a mild coffee.[49]

Then they are sorted by ripeness and color and the flesh of the berry is removed, usually
by machine, and the seeds—usually called beans—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, which
generates massive amounts of coffee wastewater. Finally, the seeds are dried. The best
(but least used) method of drying coffee is using drying tables. In this method, the pulped
and fermented coffee is spread thinly on raised beds, which allows the air to pass on all
sides of the coffee, and then the coffee is mixed by hand. In this method the drying that
takes place is more uniform, and fermentation is less likely. Most African coffee is dried
in this manner and certain coffee farms around the world are starting to use this
traditional method. Next, the coffee is sorted, and labeled as green coffee. Another way to
let the coffee beans dry is to let them sit on a concrete patio and rake over them in the
sunlight. Some companies use cylinders to pump in heated air to dry the coffee beans,
though this is generally in places where the humidity is very high.[50]

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