Coffee plants are grown in huge volumes in many parts of the world. The plant is cultivated in more than seventy countries, many of them warm climate countries, including Indonesia and Brazil, who are two of the world’s biggest coffee producers. The plants are most often grown in areas lying between the Tropic of Cancer and the Tropic of Capricorn. Other coffee plant growing areas include Africa, Central America, and India.

Although the plants are grown all over the world, the cultivation is pretty much the same process in each country, and can be a very complex process. There are two main species of coffee plants, which are known as the Arabica and the Robusta. They are small, evergreen trees, and the cultivation of coffee plants take place on plantations. The process of cultivating the plant can be labor intensive, with the amount of work needed depending on the method of farming used. This fact makes coffee cultivation more suitable for developing nations lying around the equatorial regions of the world. Coffee plants usually require temperatures that range from 15-24C without any severe fluctuations.

Coffee grows best on fields that are well drained and well aerated with deep soils, and the plants require a large supply of oxygen to provide to their root systems. Their need for large amounts of oxygen is the reason why aerated soils are the best for the cultivation and growing of coffee. The plants also require 1500mm to 2000mm of rainfall annually to provide the best results. If the rainfall is below the ideal mark then the deficit must be provided with additional moisture through irrigation means. For a higher quality of coffee, it is best to cultivate the plants at higher altitudes with an abundance of mist and clouds. The higher altitudes provide lower oxygen content, so the coffee plants take longer to mature, which helps development better flavor within the coffee beans.

Coffee trees require constant special attention from the farmer. These plants require a specific amount of shaded sunlight, regular watering and fertilizing. They must also be protected from pests and weeds to ensure they yield the best and the most coffee beans. Coffee flowers take approximately six to eight weeks to blossom, and the period the flower takes to blossom then harvest may last as long as nine months, depending on environmental and other factors. The red fruits of the coffee tree take six to eight months to ripen after the tree begins to bear fruit. Regular harvesting is required because coffee plant fruits may become over ripe after ten to fourteen days.

The fruits are often hand-picked in mountainous regions of the world, instead of using mechanical harvesters. Coffee beans are found in the fruits of the coffee plant, and are also hand-picked by manual laborers. The manual laborers must learn how to pick the best beans and discard bad beans, which requires the laborers to have much skill in that area. The hand-pickers must provide special attention to each bean, and must perform a thorough evaluation. After harvesting and picking the coffee beans must be processed, which is drying and roasting to make them ready for fresh grounding. The cultivation and growing process may be long and complicated, but it is a process that is the same throughout the world, it is needed to provide the best quality of coffee to consumers, and is necessary to give the best yield of coffee to growers.

There was a time when I thought all coffee was basically the same. Sure, you could add milk to it and get what people today call cafe latte, or make it strong and then it was espresso, or just use instant. In fact, instant was what I drank for many years. To me, that was coffee. I did keep some ground coffee for an old percolator I had, just in case guests might want it. Looking back, I truly did not know what I was missing. It wasn’t until a dear friend of mine rejected my stale, generic coffee. I thought he was a bit of a snob, but it made me think. I looked into coffee and it became an exploration and journey that opened up a whole new world for me, the world of delicious, delightful coffee. I learned to differentiate between types and blends and processing of coffee, of roasting and preparation, and of gourmet flavored coffee beans that can add so much to the enjoyment of this most wondrous of beverages.

Once I realized that instant coffee really wasn’t the real thing, no matter what the TV commercials said, I experimented with different ways of brewing coffee. I tried different types of automatic and semi-automatic coffeemakers. I fell in love with the simple elegance of the French press with its simple plunger system but also experimented with a variety of other systems. I initially bought coffee that was already ground, for no other reason than that I had unpleasant childhood memories of mom making me grind coffee beans in an old hand-powered mill. I hated it. However, I found that I was quite particular in the way I liked to have my coffee ground. It had to be just right, not too coarse and not too fine.

I also began to appreciate the many different types of gourmet coffee beans from all over the world. A lot of people still think that coffee is coffee, and it’s either black or with milk or cream, I think coffee is really more like wine-no two types and roasts are the same. After you’ve sampled imported coffee beans from various countries and regions, you begin to appreciate the subtle and not so subtle differences. Likewise, there’s a huge difference between light roasts and dark roasts. Did you know, for example, that lighter roasts actually have more caffeine, and that the way coffee is stored also makes a difference?

These days, coffee has become a hobby and passion for me. I love exploring various flavors. Yes, you can get toasted cinnamon pecan flavored coffee beans, or white chocolate, or raspberry almond, or pralines and cream. Or all sorts of Italian espresso. Or special private blends from specialty coffee places on the web. The Kona blend gourmet beans I get from my favorite place are out of this world. And when I feel adventurous I may sample coffees from Jamaica, Tanzania, Kenya, Ethiopia or Costa Rica. Some of the Central and South American coffee growing countries offer delicious shade grown and organic coffee beans, and I also keep some decaffeinated blends for when I feel like having a cup at night before I go to bed.