Coffee beans may be a delicious part of your day to create a premium cup of Joe, but how much do you know about where they come from? There are so many different facts and trivia regarding coffee beans all over the world, some of which may surprise you!
To begin with, most premium beans should be hand-picked, which is a laborious process. A skilled worker can pick up to 200 pounds of coffee cherries within one day! When it comes to a complete acre of coffee trees, that can actually yield 10,000 pounds of coffee cherries. When that is completely harvested, it will gross 2,000 pounds of green and unroasted coffee beans.
Coffee is produced all over the world along the equator between the Tropics of Cancer and Capricorn. Oddly enough, the only areas within the United States that grow coffee are Puerto Rico and Hawaii, which are not found in the continental US. The United States is one of the largest coffee consuming countries in the world, but Finland takes the cake in worldwide coffee consumption at drinking around 5 cups per person of premium Java on a daily basis.
Basically, there are two different types of beans, which are Arabica and Robusta. Arabica is seen to be the more premium variety that is gourmet, and the largest coffee beans in the world are actually Arabica found in Nicaragua Maragogipe. Another interesting tidbit about coffee beans all over the world is that coffee beans are not actually natively grown within Costa Rica. Cuban beans were introduced to Costa Rica in 1779 by a Spanish traveler. Furthermore, when you refer to coffee beans as beans, that is not actually correct. Coffee beans are not found within the legume species, but they are the pits within the berries or cherries found on the coffee trees.
If you are interested in trying truly one-of-a-kind coffee, the most expensive beans in the entire world are Kopi Luwak. They retail at between $100 and $600 per pound, and the only coffee shop in the world to sell these beans is in Australia. There you can buy a single cup of this Java for $33. Quite an investment! On top of that, Kopi Luwak is probably the most interesting type of beans found all over the world because they come from tree cat droppings in Indonesia. The beans are cleaned and roasted, and they are said to provide bolder flavors due to the digestive enzymes of the cats.
Last of all, keep in mind that Java beans are also given grades. coffee gifts beans from Kenya have a letter grade, with AA being the highest grade available. In Colombia, the grades range from highest to lowest in Supremo, Excelso, Extra, and Pasilla. When it comes to Costa Rican coffee, the grades will range from strictly hard to good hard to hard to medium hard to high grown Atlantic to medium grown Atlantic to low grown Atlantic, with the best choice being the strictly hard bean.