Morettino Global website ships to any country in the world. If you want your order to be shipped to Italy, San Marino or Vatican City, please buy on Morettino Italia website.

Mini Cart

It smells like orange blossom and produces fruits called cherries: this is all there is to know about the coffee plant

It smells like orange blossom and produces fruits called cherries: this is all there is to know about the coffee plant

It blooms after every rain, giving life to small white flowers that look like jasmine and smell like orange blossom. On its branches grow at the same time flowers and berries of different shades of color, called cherries. Coffee plant is a little botany jewel that gives life to our favorite drink. 

 

A PLANTATION IN PALERMO TOO

  

Coffee plant needs a warm and humid climate and its natural farming area is situated between the Tropic of Cancer and the Tropic of Capricorn, in 3 continents: Africa, Asia and Central-South America.

But, with the right care and attention, it adapts as well to the Mediterranean climates. In fact, for many years we have been farming small Arabica plantation in our roasting garden, which cyclically manages to produce its fruits. The visit to the plantation is an integral part of the Morettino Coffee Museum tour.

The coffee plant can also be farmed indoor, keeping a constat temperature of about 22° and cyclically nebulizing leaves with a little bit of water.

 

FEATURES OF THE PLANT 

    

 

The coffee plant can bear fruits several times a year: blooming periods take place several times throughout the year, following each rain. This is why in the same coffee plant you can find fresh blossomed flowers, still green drupes and already mature drupes based on the pedoclimatic conditions of the originary country.

Each shrub produces an average of 2 thousands cherries a year, equal to 3-4 kg of drupes nad 500 grams of green coffee beans. Drupes, or cherries, based on the botanical varieties, can be red, deep yellow or orange when ripe.

Inside the drupe there are two seeds placed one in front of the other for a the flat part. They are protected by the pulp and by an adherent silvery membrane and above this by a thicker film, called parchment.

It takes about 4 years from sowing to the first harvest. The plant matures once or twice over 12 months, for each of the 25 years of its average life.

 

NOT ONLY ARABICA AND ROBUSTA

 

 

There are about 80 species of Coffea and they grow both wild and cultivated. The two main botanical species of Coffea, which cover 98% of world production, are Arabica and Robusta.

Arabica Coffea represents three quarters of world coffee production and grows between 600 and 1500 meters above the sea level in warm humid regions (mainly in Central and South America). The beans are flattened with and elongated ovoid shape, varying in color from yellow to green-blue, depending on the soil and the types of processing, and have a central and sinuous furrow. Arabica is a valuable coffee, particularly rich in a fuirty or flowery aroma, with a sweet taste and pleasant acidity. It naturally contains a quantity of caffeine between 1,1 % and 1,7%, lower than Robusta.

Robusta Coffea was discovered about a century ago in Congo, where it grows on its own at low altitudes. Due to its resistence to the tropical climate it can grow between 200-800 meters. Today it is cultivated mainly in Central Africa and Asia. Its beans have a rounded shape, with a more linear central groove than the Arabica’s ones. The color is green-yellow, sometimes tending to beige. It gives a full-bodied coffee, with a more bitter taste, with low or no acidity at all, aromas of toasted, chocolate and nuts, with a persistent aftertaste. The caffeine content, between 2% and 3,5% is higher than Arabica.

Less common than Arabica and Robusta ia Liberica Coffea, native of the Liberia and Ivory Coast forests, The plant is very resistant and larger than those of Arabica and Robusta. The bean has a particular, pointed and easily recognizable shape.

Now that you know where the coffee you drink every day comes from, you can approach the tastings in a more aware and careful way to the quality of the raw material. Because, as we always repeat in Casa Morettino, “There is no taste without knowledge”.

 

Prodotti Correlati