GP&TWH Marketing

Herbs, Spices & Seeds

German Kaffee (Rohkaffee)

English Coffee (green coffee beans)

French Café

Spanish Café

Scientific Coffea arabica

Countries of origin

Europe

Africa Ethiopia, Ivory Coast, Cameroon, Kenya, Madagascar, Uganda

Asia Indonesia, India, Philippines, Vietnam

America Brazil, Colombia, Mexico, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Ecuador, Peru, Venezuela

Australia Papua New Guinea

Product description

Coffee shrubs (Coffea arabica), which belong to the madder (Rubiaceae) family, are shrubs with evergreen, leathery leaves, white flowers and spherical, reddish purple stone fruits, known as coffee cherries. Originally native to East Africa, coffee was cultivated for the first time in Brazil in 1740. The coffee shrub thrives in a tropical climate in shady locations with high rainfall in both mountainous areas (Coffea arabica, see below) and lowlying areas (Coffea liberica, Coffea robusta).

Since the coffee shrub blossoms throughout the year, each shrub carries fruits at all the various stages of development.

Green coffee beans are the seeds of the coffee shrub, which are disengaged completely from the husk and to a considerable extent from the seed coat (silver skin). In general, each coffee cherry contains two coffee beans, which lie with their flat sides together and exhibit longitudinal furrows in the middle of these sides.

Coffee beans contain the alkaloid caffeine (0.8 - 2.5%), which has a stimulating effect on the human nervous system, for which reason coffee is counted as a semiluxury item.

There are three varieties of coffee shrub which are of economic significance:

1. Coffea arabica, the Arabian shrub.

Plantations are generally at altitudes of over 1000 m, which make it a "highland coffee". The average length of coffee beans of this variety is approx. 9 mm and their color is greenish to blue-green.

The coffee beans of this variety are more expensive, the higher the plantations, as the fruits ripen more slowly at greater altitudes, becoming horny and hard and containing only little moisture. They consequently have a strong, full flavor. They have a caffeine content of approx. 1.2%. This variety accounts for 75 - 80% of the world's coffee harvest.

Coffea robusta, the robusta coffee shrub.

This is a "lowland" coffee, as its plantations are as a rule below 1000 m. The beans of this coffee variety are small, roundish and generally brownish to yellowy green. The coffee cherries ripen more quickly and their beans have a higher water content than highland coffee and generally have a less powerful flavor. They have a caffeine content of approx. 2.3%.

Coffea liberica, the Liberian coffee shrub.

A lowland coffee, whose beans, though larger than those of Coffea arabica, are less highly regarded because of their sharp flavor.

In addition to these varieties, a distinction is also drawn between two methods of processing green coffee beans: the dry process (produces unwashed green coffee beans) and the wet process (produces washed green coffee beans):

Unwashed green coffee beans

This processing technique is used in particular in Brazil, which is a coffee-producing country. The majority of the world's coffee production is dry-processed.

Washed green coffee beans

The washed varieties are generally those from the higher quality grades. However, their higher hygroscopicity makes them more susceptible to moisture damage.

Quality / Duration of storage

Green coffee beans are graded according to certain criteria, such as shape, size, uniformity of the beans, color, horniness, husk, cut, gloss, smoothness of the beans, proportion of defective beans, foreign matter and odor.

For instance, beans should be graded into uniform shapes and sizes. A distinction is drawn between flat beans (2 beans in a cherry), peaberries (only 1 bean in a cherry, not flattened) and Maragogype coffee (particularly large beans).

The color of the beans must exhibit a greenish to deep green and fresh background hue and varies depending on variety and origin (top varieties from Central America: strong green to gray-blue, other varieties: light yellow to light green).

Fading color, starting at the tips of the beans, results from a relatively long storage time and is deemed to indicate poor quality. Fresh-colored coffee beans are recently harvested, while yellowish-green hues are indicative of beans from an older harvest.

Horniness is also an indicator of product freshness: fresh beans should be tough and have to be peeled with a knife in the manner of horn. The cutting test shows that highland coffee is hard and has a horny, tightly serrated and wrinkly cut surface. A straight, broad, open cut indicates lowland coffee.

Coffee beans must be hard and not spongy (especially washed coffee beans), i.e. if a finger nail is pressed into the bean, it should leave no trace.

The gloss and smoothness of the beans indicate clean processing.

In addition, the proportion of defective beans and foreign matter constitutes an important criterion in the quality grading of coffee. Thus, the highest quality green coffee is sorted (previously hand-sorted, now sorted by machine) and contains only a few defective beans. Foreign matter, such as sticks, stones and leaf residues, has been almost completely removed, while medium quality green coffee still contains a considerable proportion of defective beans and foreign matter.

The following terms allow conclusions to be drawn as to the quality of the coffee:

ship fillings: coffee spilled on the floor of the hold; before delivery, the ship should clean and bag this coffee (or pay to have the above operations performed).

ship sweepings: highly contaminated coffee lying on the floor of the hold (not generally fit for recovery).

ship samples: coffee samples taken shortly before loading onto the ship or during loading operations (deposited at the port of loading).

ship spills: coffee gathered up using clean shovels, without having come into contact with the floor.

shipper's slacks: bags recorded by the ship as being too weak when loaded.

skimmings: damp coffee from partly wetted bags; the coffee beans may be divided into good skimmings, medium skimmings or poor skimmings.

Quality specifications for coffee vary very widely in Europe. Basically, the darker the coffee is roasted, the lower is the required starting quality. If German quality requirements are taken as a baseline of 100%, the coffee qualities required in Scandinavia are between 110 and 120%, while Southern Europe demands qualities of between 60 and 70%, i.e. a loss causing depreciation of 20% in Germany does not constitute a loss at all in southern Europe.

Washed coffee may be stored for several years if the recommended storage conditions are complied with.