How Coffee Is Grown

Its scientific name is Rubiceae; the world knows it simply as coffee. People the world over love, crave and simply cannot wake up in the morning without their coffee. However, many people are unaware of how this common staple of many households is grown or what it even looks like prior to hitting the grocery store shelves.

Location

The coffee plant is best grown in the tropical equatorial regions where the altitude is above 3,600 feet. In Mexico and Costa Rica, coffee is grown on small farms. In Guatemala coffee is grown in areas of high volcanic soil, and in Africa coffee is grown mainly in Ethiopia and Kenya. Jamaican coffee is considered a prized coffee in the United States, while Colombia, Kenya, Vietnam, Cote d'Ivoire and Hawaii are the five highest coffee producers in the world.

The beauty of the coffee plant

Coffee is an evergreen shrub that produces white flowers followed by red berries. These red coffee berries contain two beans each, that when dried, roasted and ground are turned into the beverage known as coffee. It takes six to eight years for a coffee bush to mature enough to produce its first crop of beans. Each coffee bush can approximately produce one and a half pounds of coffee beans for harvest every year.

In tropical, equatorial climates at higher altitudes, the wonderfully aromatic coffee bush is grown. It is a prized commodity all over the world, yet very few are capable of recognizing this great plant that gives so many people their get-up and go.