Good Coffee Part 2: Coffee Quality and Freshness

Today’s entry is about buying coffee while considering quality and freshness. Coffee is an agricultural product and quickly degrades, so, freshness is important. There are two species of coffee plants you should know about: Cafea Robusta, and Cafea Arabica.

Some of the less expensive coffees contain beans from the Robusta plant. Cafea Robusta is very hearty and grows well in sub-optimal conditions, such as the low altitudes and direct sunlight that Arabica does not thrive in.  This makes it less expensive, but it also tends to impart a bitter taste. Robusta coffee should be avoided.

Cafea Arabica is the original species traded as coffee hundreds of years ago. It was spread from its home in east Africa to tropical regions over the globe by early European traders who saw the profit potential in growing this product, and it now comes in several varietals.  Arabica grows in the world’s tropical zones. It prefers higher, cool elevations, with plenty of moisture, moist, well drained soil, and shade or indirect sun. It thrives best on mountainsides underneath taller shade trees.  Growing Arabica coffee requires quite an investment from farmers.  The plants take several years of maturation before they are ready to produce fruit, and when they do, each plant produces enough fruit for approximately one pound of green coffee each growing season.  The results are worth it.  Arabica beans have a complex flavor profile much like wine.

The coffee bean is not a bean at all, but the pit of a cherry sized fruit that turns a bright red when ripe.  Washing, drying, and milling removes the skin, pulp, and husk and leaves a green seed which is bagged exported to roasting plants.  Coffee’s flavor  profile is affected by the varietal, the growing region’s distinctive environment, the particular local (pre-roasting) processing method, and finally the way it was roasted.  Profits are often meager for smaller coffee farmers and loans often difficult to acquire. There are organizations today such as FAIRTRADE that help these farmers get a fair price for their product and reinvest in their communities.

Coffee begins losing its freshness immediately after roasting, and this loss accelerates rapidly after the coffee is ground.  Stay away from the canned pre-ground coffee.  For freshness, brew your coffee as soon after grinding as you can; even whole bean coffee starts going stale after a week.  I recommend buying a good coffee grinder for your home before investing in another coffee maker. If you can’t grind your coffee at home, grind your coffee in the store, or have your coffee salesman do it for you. Finding the right grind for your preferred brewing method will be discussed in a later entry.