Wednesday, January 16, 2013

Do you know your coffee enough?


Who doesn't want a cup of coffee! Everybody wants a cup, and most often another few cups per day. I guess this is one of the most famous drinks of all time. In the last few years, a lot of coffee shops sprouted here in the country, triggered by the foreign coffee shops you are most familiar with.

In the past there are no coffee shops here, as purely coffee shops. Coffee is just in restaurants, offered as drinks, together with other recipes. But that doesn't mean we don't have it. It has been here for centuries, mostly introduced during the colonization period by the Spaniards. History says it is brought here in 1784, and my province was the first biggest producer. It produced the traditional coffee blend we locally call "Barako", and is now being promoted by one of the biggest coffee shops here "Figaro". I guess 'kapeng barako' can very well be an intellectual property right as Geographic Indication.

My father being a heavy coffee drinker planted a lot of coffee plants in our property. So we basically are coffee drinkers starting from childhood. As kids we also had our share of harvesting and processing coffee beans. But when father died, the trees are not cared for anymore, and we don't process our own coffee too. The small harvests are now sold as dry beans, to the assembler wholesalers who buy from small producers.

A young coffee tree, 'Arabica' variety

A blooming coffee tree will not pass unnoticed. The scent is so mildly sweet specially in the mornings. And the white blooms are so beautiful.

young immature berries line every branch and every leaf axils


 When properly tended and fertilized,  every branch is laden with fruits.

 A neglected tree in our property showing very few fruits in a plant, not all branches have fruits.

 This is the 'Liberica' variety famous in the country as 'kapeng barako', planted and popularized in my province. 'Barako' is a local term for male animal, which might be the term given to describe the strength of this coffee. It is said that there are only two countries where this variety is successfully cultivated. The other varieties are Excelsa, Robusta, Arabica. Blends from these varieties make excellent aroma and brew, and the proportion of the variety makes for a particular type of blend. I specifically like more of the Arabica variety, although we were so used to the Liberica variety because Arabica grows in colder conditions.

Sundrying coffee berries in cement structures takes a few days, the length depends on the intensity of the sunlight and temperatures. Cloudy skies lengthens drying and lessens the quality of the dried coffee beans. It should well be taken care well not to catch any drizzles or rain, as moisture will allow fungus infection on the drying pulp. However, this might not give bad effects on the coffee beans as their seed coats are very thick and hard for the fungus to enter. But care is given not to incur unsightly appearance. Modern coffee plantations use electric driers for their harvest.

Further processing of the sundried coffee berries include depulping, cleaning, roasting, grinding before we get the coffee brew most of us normally clamour for! 

These are fallen flowers of 'Liberica' coffee variety, the scent is still soothingly strong even at this stage.

Come, let's have a cup of coffee, everybody is invited!

Now here are my Two Questions for the Thursday Two Questions Meme: 
1. Have you personally seen a coffee plant?
2. Can you relate your cup of coffee to the plant?



  

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24 comments:

  1. Wow! Great post, Andrea! Like the photo of those red beans! No civet?
    One

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  2. An informative post. I like the idea of planting a bush just for its aroma. Recently someone presented us with a bag of Kopi Luwak (civet cat-processed). Its strong and good though its provenance is a bit questionable. And now, Andrea, one cuppa please.

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    1. You should join us in the FB-My Nice Garden Chat of Autumn Belle. Our discussion of the 'kopi luwak' has been the longest topic so far! I told AB to include you, she said you declined.

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    2. I've to start another FB account before I accept because there are too much writings on the wall, so much so I feel like I'm wading through the Amazon jungle :(

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  3. Fantastic photos, and wonderful information on coffee beans..I sure want to join you for a cup :-)

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  4. Wonderful post and most informative about coffee ~ Excellent photography ~ great to see even though I am one of the few non coffee drinkers ~ caffeine has always been too much for me ~

    A Creative Harbor ^_^

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  5. Fantastic info, and beautiful photos of the coffee beans and plant! Thanks for visiting!

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  6. I am not a big coffee drinker, but Judy is. She would be thrilled to drink coffee from her own trees. I had not realized it is a beautiful plant!

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  7. After reading your well researched and beautifully written post, I wanna plant coffee for my own brewing too!

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    1. Oh no Autumn Belle, this is not a well researched post! You know i write spontaneously without drafts. I just know coffee a bit well because we have them with us since i was a kid, and our province is the first to grow it during the Spanish period. I will only resort to research on coffee when it comes to detailed technical information. thanks for thinking that way!

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  8. 1. Have you personally seen a coffee plant? No, I have never seen it in person. I am now seeing it in photos. :-)
    2. Can you relate your cup of coffee to the plant? Oh-yes. I love my cup of coffee or two. It's nice and warm. The plant looks bountiful.
    A great post on Coffee plant. I am glad you post it!

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  9. Very cool blog. Interesting posts. ;)
    Nice atmosphere guests with you here on the blog. ;]
    Yours. Have a nice day. !

    Follow me on facebook fanpage
    I'm very concerned about this, please. :)
    https://www.facebook.com/pages/In-another-light/413836138693856

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  10. 1. Have you personally seen a coffee plant?
    Yes, I have during our vacations on Caribbean islands.
    2. Can you relate your cup of coffee to the plant?
    Not only that, I love to visit this place ...
    http://www.coffeetree.ca/ in Toronto.
    Always have a cup of coffee when I am close by.
    Thank you for your great post,
    Gisela

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  11. I´ve seen coffee flowers once. Very lovely.

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  12. i grew up with coffee drinkers...i believe i was bottle-fed with coffee as a baby.:p
    my grandparents also grew coffee in their property, my lola roasted and made ground coffee in her kitchen. a huge coffee pot was brewing 24/7--coffee-maker was unheard of in those days.:p we woke up to the aroma of coffee every morning since i can remember. did you eat rice soaked in coffee? i did when i was grade school.:p

    i still brew coffee my aunt sends from Bacolod--not sure if it's barako though. i remember there was a huge coffee plantation in Negros Occidental when i was a kid---it was owned by the Oriarte's, a neighbor of the hacienda owned by the Benedictos in Pontevedra, my father's hometown. Not sure what happened to it...if it was sequestered or was bought by Danding Cojuangco.


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  13. I love coffee but I've never seen a coffee plant.

    Liz @ MLC

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  14. How wonderful to have your own coffee plant and to have this connection to your father. This is a great post. I thoroughly enjoyed reading it and seeing a coffee plant from your perspective. Great photos!

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  15. Wonderful series! The leaves are gorgeous.

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  16. Salamat sa pag share kabayan. Marami ko natutunan. Very nice pictures at ngayon lang ko nakakita ng tanim na kape sa pinas at bulaklak.

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  17. Fascinating again...I am a huge coffee drinker but have never personally seen the plant. Love seeing the beans and hearing about the coffee plants you know.

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  18. Wow. I loved seeing that plant.
    I think the last time I saw one was when I was a child, in my country.

    I don't drink coffee much, but I do love the smell and taste when I do put a cup together on Sundays.

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  19. Thank you for visiting me, Andrea, over in my snowy winter wonderland! What I need right now is a huge, hot steaming mug of coffee. I found your post fascinating. I had not seen the red fleshy fruit before, let alone those exquisite white flowers. I have seen coffee plants, but only twice in a biome! And yes, I find it quite hard to equate the plant with the beverage ... Incidentally, I grew up surrounded by sugar beat, and always found it hard to think that it could be used for processed sugar (though the animals like it in beat form). Join me now ... I'll put the kettle on (or do you use a percolator? cafetiere?).

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  20. You can know from the post if you know your coffee enough. Useful post
    florist

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  21. I really enjoyed this post :). I am a coffee lover and have never seen one of these plants in person.

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