Coffee

One large garden centre chain has sold coffee plant seedlings to the general public. As a novelty they might be great fun, but in terms of actually producing anything worthwhile, they are useless. The biggest problem facing anyone trying to grow coffee plants in the U.K. is the fact that they need a very high Winter temperature of some 60 degrees Fahrenheit. The commercial varieties of Arabica and Liberica can grow up to 30 feet and are therefore totally unsuitable for growing in a domestic heated greenhouse or sun-lounge. However, there is a smaller ornamental variety (Bengalensis) that only grows to some 6 feet or so and also has larger, more showy flowers.

Coffee trees are evergreen with large glossy leaves that are not unlike those of Laurel and have very beautiful, but short lived, fragrant white flowers followed by small berries. When the berries are ripe they are similar in appearance to red cherries and inside each berry are two precious coffee beans that fit together like two halves of a peanut. The blue/green beans are surrounded by a yellowish jellylike substance.

Trees will not fruit for at least three years after planting and are best left longer, but will then continue for some 50/60 years. A mature tree yields up to 10lbs of "cherries" a season and as it takes 5lb of cherries to make 1lb of coffee beans, only about 1 1/2 to 2 lbs green beans can be harvested from each tree. Consequently coffee plantations tend to be very large to make them commercially profitable. Coffee plants need a high humidity, high all year round temperature and give the best flavoured beans if they are grown at the high altitudes found in the tropics. The most commercially grown type is the taller Arabica variety that is normally lopped at 15 feet for easier harvesting. Plants can be raised from seed, but are often grown commercially "in the field" by bending branches down into the ground to root.

The first coffee plant is said to have come from Abyssinia or Ethiopia as it has been called in more recent years. It was very popular throughout the Middle east before spreading into Europe in the 16th centuries. Of course it was not until the first coffee houses of London started in 1652 that England caught on to the habit and America followed soon after.

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