Coffee, scientifically known as Coffea arabica, belongs to the Rubiaceae family as an evergreen shrub and is the national flower of Yemen. From its origins in the Horn of Africa to the monopoly trade on the Arabian Peninsula, and then to its spread and popularization in Europe and globally, coffee has traversed a long history. This article will guide you through a systematic understanding of coffee's botanical characteristics, origin legends, major global production regions, cultivated variety classification, chemical composition, and nutritional data, along with a detailed analysis of the flavors of classic varieties such as Blue Mountain and Mandheling. Whether you are a beginner or a seasoned enthusiast, this article will help you build a complete knowledge framework about coffee. Front Street Coffee will also recommend classic beans worth trying.
The scientific name of coffee in botany is Coffea arabica. People often call it the coffee tree or Arabian coffee, and it is also the national flower of Yemen. Before the 6th century AD, the region of Yemen was long referred to as Arabia, so the coffee trees transported from there to other regions acquired the name "Arabian coffee tree." The term "coffee" comes from the Arabic word "Qahwah," originally meaning a plant-based beverage. As coffee spread around the world, people began to call it by its place of origin, "Kaffa," and it was not until the 18th century that "coffee" became the official name.
In terms of plant classification, coffee belongs to the Rubiaceae family as an evergreen shrub. Its lateral branches extend horizontally, with opposite leaves, occasionally appearing in whorls of three; the leaves are simple and opposite, and flowers grow in clusters of 2 to 10 in the leaf axils. The fruit is an elliptical drupe, dark green when first formed, turning yellow-red or purple-red when ripe. The coffee fruit consists of the outer skin, pulp, endocarp, silver skin, and the seed (the coffee bean) wrapped at the very center by these layers. The seed occupies the central position of the fruit, and the parts other than the seed are basically of no use.
The world's first coffee tree was discovered in the Horn of Africa. The history of coffee cultivation can be traced back to the 15th century. Over the following centuries, Yemen on the Arabian Peninsula was the world's only coffee-producing region, and market demand for coffee was extremely strong. At the port of Mocha in Yemen, coffee shipments often required heavy military escorts. At the same time, Yemen employed various means to prevent coffee seedlings from leaving the country. Despite these restrictions, Muslim pilgrims traveling to the holy city of Mecca still secretly brought coffee seedlings back to their homelands, and coffee thus quickly took root in India. At the time, Venice in Italy had numerous merchant fleets trading with Arab merchants in perfumes, tea, and textiles. Through Venice, coffee was introduced to vast areas of Europe. Many European merchants gradually developed the habit of drinking coffee. Thereafter, street vendors selling coffee appeared in many European cities, and coffee spread rapidly across Europe. In the 17th century, the Dutch introduced coffee to their colony of Indonesia. During the same period, the French also began cultivating coffee in Africa. Today, coffee has become the world's second-largest traded commodity after oil. Among the many legends about the discovery of coffee, the two most talked about are "The Story of the Shepherd" and "The Arab Monk."
The world's three major coffee-growing regions are Africa, Indonesia, and Central and South America. Yemen was the first country in the world to cultivate coffee as a crop on a large scale. Today, the cultivation and processing methods of Yemeni Mocha coffee remain basically unchanged from centuries ago. On most coffee farms in Yemen, coffee farmers still refuse to use chemical fertilizers or other artificial chemical products. Coffee farmers plant poplar trees to provide the shade needed for coffee growth. Coffee trees are planted on steep terraces to maximize use of limited land and scarce rainfall. Yemeni Mocha beans are still shipped in bags woven from straw, while other places use chemical woven bags.
Yemen has a history of coffee cultivation spanning over 2,000 years. According to statistics, 76 countries around the world grow coffee. In China, coffee was first introduced to Taiwan in 1884, and in 1908, overseas Chinese brought large-seed and medium-seed varieties back from Malaysia and planted them on Hainan Island. Currently, the main cultivation areas are distributed across Yunnan, Guangxi, Guangdong, and Hainan.
Arabica Coffee
[Scientific Name]
Arabica is Coffea arabica L., Robusta is Coffea canephora, and Liberica is Coffea liberica
Family and Genus: Rubiaceae, Coffea
[Aliases]
Arabica is also called the Arabian species, Robusta is also called the Canephora species, and Liberica is also called the Liberian species
The two most common types are Arabica and Robusta.
Coffee is rich in protein, fat, sucrose, starch, caffeine, and other substances. When made into a beverage, it has a rich aroma, pleasant taste, and high nutritional value, making it one of the world's three major beverages alongside tea and cocoa, and it ranks at the top. Yunnan coffee is a variant of the Arabian original species, developed through long-term cultivation and domestication, commonly known as Yunnan Arabica coffee, with a cultivation history of over one hundred years.
Morphological characteristics: A small tree or large shrub, 5-8 meters tall. The base is usually multi-branched, with old branches grayish-white. The nodes are swollen, and young branches are hairless. Leaves are thinly leathery, ovate-lanceolate or lanceolate, with long acuminate tips, cuneate or slightly obtuse bases, entire or slightly wavy margins, hairless on both sides. Cymes are clustered in several groups in the leaf axils, with white, fragrant corollas. The berry is broadly elliptical when ripe, red, 1.2-1.6 cm long, with seeds 0.8-1.0 cm long. Flowering period is March to April.
Origin and distribution: Native to Ethiopia or the Arabian Peninsula. Cultivated in Fujian, Taiwan, Guangdong, Hainan, Guangxi, Sichuan, Guizhou, and Yunnan.
The History of Coffee
The word "coffee" originates from a small town in Ethiopia called Kaffa, while in Greek, "Kaweh" means "strength and passion." Tea, coffee, and cocoa are known as the world's three major beverages. The coffee tree is an evergreen small tree of the Rubiaceae family. The coffee we drink daily is made from coffee beans using various brewing devices, and coffee beans are the kernels inside the fruit of the coffee tree, roasted using appropriate methods.
In ancient China, there was Shennong who tasted hundreds of herbs and recorded and organized them one by one, enabling later generations to have a systematic understanding of many plants. The Western world had no such figure as Shennong, nor did it leave behind any written records, so there are various different legends about the origin of coffee. Among them, the most widespread and popular is the story of the shepherd. Legend has it that a shepherd, while grazing his sheep,偶然 discovered that his sheep were jumping and dancing about. Upon closer inspection, he found that the sheep had eaten a red fruit that caused their comical and strange behavior. He tried picking some of these red fruits and boiling them, and unexpectedly the room was filled with fragrance. After drinking the brewed liquid, he felt even more energized and refreshed. From then on, this fruit was used as a refreshing beverage and was well received.
In ancient times, Arabs were the first to dry and boil coffee beans, drinking the liquid as a stomach medicine, believing it could aid digestion. Later, they discovered that coffee also had a refreshing effect. At the same time, since Islam strictly prohibited believers from drinking alcohol, coffee replaced alcoholic beverages as a refreshing drink consumed regularly. After the 15th century, Muslims making pilgrimages to the holy city of Mecca gradually brought coffee back to their places of residence, and coffee gradually spread to Egypt, Syria, Iran, Turkey, and other countries. Coffee's entry into the European continent was due to the Ottoman Empire of Turkey at the time. Because the coffee-loving Ottoman army marched westward into Europe and stationed there for several years, when the army finally withdrew, it left behind large quantities of supplies including coffee beans. The people of Vienna and Paris were able to use these coffee beans, along with the brewing experience obtained from the Turks, to develop Europe's coffee culture. War was originally about conquest and destruction, but it unexpectedly brought cultural exchange and even integration—something the rulers had never anticipated.
Westerners are all familiar with coffee's three-hundred-year history, yet in the East, coffee had already become a popular beverage across all social classes in much earlier times. The earliest and most definitive appearance of coffee was in the 8th century BC, but as early as in Homer's works (Greek poet, dates of birth and death debated; one authoritative account says he was born in 744 BC—translator's note) and many ancient Arab legends, a magical beverage that was black in color, bitter in taste, and possessed strong stimulating power was already described. Around the 10th century AD, Avicenna (980-1037, one of the most outstanding polymaths of the ancient Islamic world, a philosopher, physician, theorist, etc.—translator's note) used coffee as a medicine to treat diseases. There is also a peculiar story from the 15th century about a Yemeni shepherd who saw a flock of goats nibbling reddish berries from a bush, and soon these goats became restless and excited. The shepherd reported this to a monk (in ancient times in the Middle East and the West, monks were the educated upper class—translator's note), and the monk boiled some berries and then extracted a bitter, potent beverage that could drive away drowsiness and sleepiness.
Although coffee was discovered in the Middle East, the coffee tree originated in an area of Africa now belonging to Ethiopia, called Kaffa. From there, coffee spread to Yemen, the Arabian Peninsula, and Egypt. It was in Egypt that coffee developed extremely rapidly and quickly became popular in people's daily lives.
By the 16th century, early merchants were already selling coffee in Europe, thereby introducing coffee as a new beverage into Western customs and life. The vast majority of coffee exported to European markets came from the ports of Alexandria and Smyrna (a port city in western Turkey—translator's note). However, with growing market demand, high tariffs imposed by import and export ports, and increased knowledge of coffee tree cultivation, dealers and scientists began experimenting with transplanting coffee to other countries. The Dutch transplanted coffee trees in their overseas colonies (Batavia and Java; Batavia is the old name for present-day Jakarta, the capital of Indonesia—translator's note). The French transplanted coffee trees in Martinique in 1723 (located in Latin America), and subsequently in the Antilles (located in the West Indies—translator's note). Later, the British, Spanish, and Portuguese began encroaching on tropical coffee-growing regions in Asia and the Americas.
In 1727, coffee cultivation began in northern Brazil. However, poor climatic conditions gradually shifted cultivation to other areas—first Rio de Janeiro, and finally São Paulo and Minas (around 1800-1850), where coffee found its most ideal growing environment. Coffee cultivation here grew and expanded until it became Brazil's most important economic resource.
It was precisely during the period from 1740 to 1850 that coffee cultivation reached its greatest popularity in Central and South America.
Although coffee originated in Africa, its cultivation and household consumption were relatively recently introduced there. In fact, it was the Europeans who brought coffee back to its homeland, introducing it to their colonies, where favorable land and climatic conditions allowed coffee to flourish and prosper.
Main Components of Coffee
Caffeine: It has a particularly strong bitter taste and stimulates the central nervous system, heart, and respiratory system. Moderate amounts of caffeine can also reduce muscle fatigue and promote the secretion of digestive juices. Because it promotes kidney function, it has a diuretic effect, helping the body excrete excess sodium ions. However, excessive intake can lead to caffeine poisoning.
Tannic acid: After boiling, tannic acid decomposes into pyrogallic acid, so coffee that has been brewed for too long will have a worse taste.
Fat: The main types are acidic fat and volatile fat.
Acidic fat: Fat that contains acid; its intensity varies depending on the type of coffee.
Volatile fat: The main source of coffee's aroma; it releases approximately forty aromatic substances.
Protein: The main source of calories, though its proportion is not high. The protein in coffee grounds mostly does not dissolve during brewing, so the amount ingested is limited.
Sugar: Green coffee beans contain about 8% sugar. After roasting, most of the sugar converts to caramel, giving coffee its brown color and combining with tannic acid to produce sweetness.
Fiber: The fiber in green beans carbonizes after roasting and combines with caramel to form coffee's color tone.
Minerals: Contains small amounts of lime, iron, phosphorus, sodium carbonate, etc.
Coffee Nutritional Composition Table
Per 100 grams of coffee beans: moisture 2.2 g, protein 12.6 g, fat 16 g, carbohydrates 46.7 g, fiber 9 g, ash 4.2 g, calcium 120 mg, phosphorus 170 mg, iron 42 mg, sodium 3 mg, vitamin B2 0.12 g, niacin 3.5 mg, caffeine 1.3 g, tannin 8 g. Per 100 grams of coffee infusion: moisture 99.5 g, protein 0.2 g, fat 0.1 g, ash 0.1 g, trace carbohydrates, calcium 3 mg, phosphorus 4 mg, sodium 2 mg, vitamin B2 0.01 mg, niacin 0.3 mg. When 10 grams of coffee is dissolved in hot water, the caffeine content is 0.04 g and the tannin content is 0.06 g.
Varieties
Blue Mountain
Blue Mountain is a coffee relatively popular with the general public, produced in Jamaica in Central America and the West Indies. It possesses a mellow, sweet-with-slight-bitterness, smooth and palatable character, with a slight acidity that makes the palate more sensitive, allowing one to taste its unique flavor. It is considered the finest of coffees.
Mandheling
Abundantly produced in Sumatra, Indonesia, where the special geology and climate cultivate its unique characteristics. It has a rather rich and full-bodied mellow flavor, with relatively pronounced bitterness and a charcoal-roasted taste. Its bitterness and sweetness are especially excellent, with a distinctive charm.
The above content is compiled by CoffeeHunters, a coffee news website.
