The World of Coffee

An invigorating discovery.
Legend tells that a goat herd from Kaffa, Ethiopia, noticed that his goats, when eating from the fruit of a bush with white blossoms and red fruit, became more lively and active. With the help of some monks, he discovered that he could brew an invigorating drink by drying the fruit over fire, grinding it to powder and mixing it with hot water. Kaffa is said to be the origin of coffee. Coffee was mentioned there as early as the 9th century. Historians believe that in the 14th century the knowledge of coffee moved from Ethiopia to Arabia. The modern word coffee comes from the Arabic word “Qahwah” (the stimulant).

From Ethiopia to Vienna.
In 1554 the first coffeehouse was opened in Constantinople. Coffee became popular in Europe at the end of the 16th century, after a prosperous merchant from Venice had brought the drink to Italy. Another century had passed before coffee reached the rest of the European continent and North America. In Paris coffeehouses were opened to serve the new drink to the public. The first coffeehouse in Vienna was opened in 1683 after the Ottoman Turkish siege army left behind 500 bags of coffee beans. In 1862 Julius Meinl started roasting coffee and selling it in individual amounts – making Julius Meinl a synonym for Viennese coffee.

After oil, coffee is the second most important commodity traded worldwide. The coffee growing areas are located around the equator between the Tropics of Capricorn and Cancer. There are 3 main coffee growing regions: East Africa and Arabia, South East Asia and Indonesia, and Latin and Central America. The fruit of the coffeebush is a cherry. Two coffee beans are in each cherry. This plant is a botanical novelty, as it blooms and carries ripe as well as unripe fruit at the same time. In the wild, the coffee plant grows as high as 4 meters, but on coffee farms it is trimmed down to the size of a bush for easier harvesting. There are two important types of coffee beans: Coffea Arabica (70% of world production) and Coffea Robusta.

Arabica and Robusta.
These two coffee varieties grow in different regions under different soil and climate conditions. The most important distinctions are: Arabica has a more delicate taste with stronger aroma and higher acidity. Robusta has a harsher taste and is, as its name implies, stronger and more robust. The Arabica beans are somewhat longer than Robusta beans and have a curved incision in the middle. Robusta beans ripen in 6 months while Arabica beans mature in 9-11 months.

How is coffee harvested and prepared?
All year round coffee is being harvested somewhere in the world. Careful handling is very important for the quality of coffee and only ripe cherries should be used. To prevent the fruit pulp from fermenting, the coffee cherries must be processed in a timely manner. After separating the beans from the cherry, they are further processed using the dry or wet method. The wet method is most often used for premium coffee as it is less aggressive for the beans. Julius Meinl uses mostly beans processed by the wet method. The coffee beans have to go through continuous quality controls before the coffee is drunk by the consumer.

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