Coffee: the standard breakfast drink grows up

Nation's Restaurant News,  August 19, 2002  

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The seeds are removed from the fruit and kept in dry storage until they are shipped, green, to roasters.

Two basic varieties of coffee are under cultivation: robusta and arabica. Robusta coffee makes up most of the coffee market. It is a hearty plant that can grow in a wider variety of climates than its more delicate cousin, arabica, and it also is easier to produce, and thus much cheaper. Robusta coffee has a less subtle, more assertive and bitterer flavor than arabica, and is used to make instant coffee and much mass-produced coffee. Also, it often is used as part of espresso blends.

Arabica coffee grows mostly in mountainous areas of tropical parts of the globe. Its flavor, much like the flavor of wines, depends on the breed of the coffee as well as the region where it is cultivated.

Coffee flavor also is highly dependent on its freshness as well as how it is harvested and roasted.

Although coffee quality can vary from one microclimate to the next, below is a broad overview of what arabica coffee from the main producing regions is known for.

Brazil -- The world's largest coffee producer is known for producing low-acid coffees with a lot of body. With flavor described as mild, soft and mellow, Brazilian coffees are good for blending with other beans for espresso.

Central America -- Coffee from this region often is described as bright, clean and acidic. Its flavor is mild but with many subtle nuances. Salvadoran and Honduran beans generally are more mild than those of Costa Rica, Nicaragua and Guatemala.

Colombia -- Formerly the second-largest coffee-growing country in the world, Colombia recently was passed by Vietnam, which mostly produces robusta coffee. The Colombian coffee industry is known for its uniformity and producing a product with a nice balance of acidity and body. In recent years there have been complaints that consistency has come at the price of quality. The country's coffee industry has been identifying microclimates that would be suitable for specialized estate coffee.

Ethiopia -- This ancient coffee producer has some of the world's most distinctive and varied coffee, due in part to a lack of infrastructure and standardization. The country's three varieties, Harar, Yrgacheffe and Sidomo, sometimes are described as lemony and zesty or, like other West African coffees, winy or sweet and sour. The best Harars have a hint of blueberry.

India -- This giant country is best known in the coffee world for Mysore coffee. Monsoon Malabar, which traditionally is left in warehouses to age during the monsoon season, also is well known. Indian coffees, sometimes called the poor man's Sumatra, are light and very low in acid.

Indonesia -- Java, Sumatra and Sulawesi, or Celebes, are this country's main coffee-producing islands. All produce quite full-bodied beans that stand up to dark roasting. Sumatra in particular often is blended with beans from Central America or Kenya.

Island coffees -- The pricey coffees of Jamaican Blue Mountain and Hawaiian Kona, at their best, have excellent balance of body, aroma and acidity. Both varieties, but especially Kona, have suffered from counterfeiting in the past.