Posts Tagged ‘Coffee Plant’
Arabian coffee is the quintessential coffee of the world. Arabia lends its name to the highest quality coffee plant in the world, Coffea Arabica. Arabian coffee accounts for about 80% of all coffee produced in the world. It prefers higher elevations and drier climates than its cousin C. robusta.
The tropics of South America provide ideal conditions for growing Arabian coffee which grows best between 3,000 and 6,500 feet but has been grown as high as 9,000 feet. Generally, the higher the plant is grown the slower it matures. This gives it time to develop the internal elements and oils that give coffee its aromatic flavor.
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Ethiopia is the birthplace of coffee, yet it is not a country that comes to mind when the average consumer thinks of coffee. The South American countries are much more synonymous with coffee production but coffee did not come to these countries until the early 1700’s, nearly a thousand years after it was discovered. As legend has it, Ethiopian coffee was originally discovered around 600 A.D. by a young boy tending goats. It is not known when the name coffee was applied to the strange plants but an interesting legend places it around 900 A.D.
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Growing in Eastern and Central North America from New York and Ontario, West to Minnesota and South to Kansas, Tennessee and Oklahoma, the Kentucky coffee tree (Gymnocladus dioicus) is a moderately large canopy tree belonging to the legume family. It is known by several other names, such as American coffee berry, Kentucky mahogany, nicker treet, or stump tree.
The Kentucky coffee tree was pitted against the Tulip Poplar for the distinction of being named Kentucky’s state tree. It eventually lost to the Tulip Poplar (also called Yellow Poplar or Tulip Tree) in 1994 but still retained the title of “unofficial Kentucky state tree.”
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