Long life to the coffee
Coffee is a great ally in the everyday life: it helps in the morning to wake up, for a break to regenerate or after lunch to close the meal in the best way. We say “let’s go for a coffee!” when we want to see a friend and we believe that looking in the coffee grounds we can see something more on our future. The coffee is one of the main ingredient of one of the best desserts in the world: tiramisù.
Cultivation of Coffee
It comes from Etiopia, in the region of Kaffa, giving origin to the name Coffea and then, it spreads also in Yemen, Arabia and Egypt. Known as “Arabian wine”, it arrived in Italy in 1700 thanks to the seapower of Venice that created the first “bar” where it was possible to taste this drink. In the years, coffee has become a great business at a world level in the same way as oil, steel and wheat, that it represents the main source of sustenance of lots of countries in the world that live with this precious raw material.
Coffea plants are cultivated between the 25th parallel north and 25th parallel south, in these lands the climate and the composition of the south allow the perfect growth of its fruits, reaching the 10 mt of height.
Types of coffee
There are around 60 species of coffee plants in the world, 25 of which are traded but just the first 4 are the best varieties: Coffea Arabica, la Coffea Robusta, la Coffea Liberica e la Coffea Excelsa.
Coffea Arabica
The most famous is the variety Moka, cultivated in Arabia which grains have intense aromas and perfumes, with a green colour has a flat and long shape. Other varieties are the “Tipica”, “Burbon” cultivated in Brasil and the “Maragogype” with bigger grains. The volcanic soils are able to give the specific organoleptic properties.
Coffea Robusta
It flourishes all year round, giving origin to smaller grains than Coffea Arabica but they are richer in caffein and more perfumed than the first variety. It is cultivated mainly in Congo where it can grow more resistant to the illness. There is also the variety Arabusta, the cross between Coffea Arabica and Robusta.
Coffea Liberica
Ivory Coast and the forests of Liberia are the ideal place to grow these varieties of coffee grains. It needs a high temperature and abundant water and it resists to the attack of parasites. Even if the grains have a lower quality than the others, they have in any case an intense aroma and a pleasant taste.
Coffe Excelsa
Similar to the Coffea Arabica, this variety, discovered in 1904, give a high return per hectare and its grains give to the final drink a pleasant and perfumed taste.
