About Coffee ｜ History of Coffee ｜About Roasting ｜Storing/Preparing ｜Coffee Terms

Several factors go into achieving a great cup of coffee- We start with high quality beans, we then roast the beans to the optimum level to achieve the best flavor, then its up to you to store and properly prepare.

• Coffee is the seed of a cherry from a coffee tree.

• Coffee trees are evergreens and can grow to heights of 20 feet. Most are kept shorter, to make them easier to harvest.

• Coffee cherries begin as a cluster of white blossoms that last only a few days, then small green berries begin to appear.

• These berries darken to yellow, red, then almost black while ripening for six to nine months.

• The berries ripen at different times, requiring them to be hand picked.

• The average tree takes four to five years to produce its first crop and each tree typically produces one to two pounds of roasted coffee per year.

• As with wine, the altitude, climate, soil and nearby plants affect the flavor of the beans.

  • Coffee has more flavor components than wine!

There are two different species of coffee beans-

Arabica (ahRAH-bee-kah) and Robusta (row-BOOST-ah or row-BUST-ah)

• Arabica

  • Make up over 75% of world production of coffee beans

  • Grow best at high altitudes- over 3,000 feet.

  • Produce beans of a higher quality and are more aromatic with a more refined flavor

  • Arabic beans contain about half the caffeine of Robusta beans
     

• Robusta

  • Are a robust species resistant to disease with a high per plant yield of berries

  • Grow at lower elevations

  • Are much less expensive and are considered inferior to Arabica beans

Although Arabica beans make up most of the world’s coffee trade, only 10% of this supply is up to the standards of the specialty coffee industry. Fountain City only roasts beans that meet this standard.