What Tree Does Coffee Come From? (Solved!)

Coffee comes from a coffee tree, an evergreen shrub of the genus Coffea plant, and is best grown between June and December in central and south America, the Middle East, Asia, and Africa. The two important species of coffee tree are coffee Robusta and coffee Arabica. 

This article will go into the origins of coffee, where it comes from, and how you harvest coffee.

Does Coffee Come from a Bush, Plant, or Tree?

Coffee comes from a plant known as Coffea Arabica and Coffea Robusta. Coffea arabica has very thick bushes, and the cherries grow within 8 to 9 months. 

The Robusta tree is smaller than the Arabica tree, and it has smaller bushes. 

The Robusta tree can grow up to 10 meters in height and take a longer time, up to 11 months, to mature the seeds in their fruits. Two straight beans are known as coffee beans. However, when one bean out of the two gets mature, it is known as a peaberry.

Robusta seeds are also smaller and more petite oval than Arabica tree seeds. The temperature required for the maturation of Arabica coffee beans is about 59 to 77 Fahrenheit (15 to 25 Celsius). On the other hand, the temperature needed to develop Robusta coffee seeds is about 77 to 86 Fahrenheit (25 to 30 Celsius), and they can flourish at high temperatures.

Arabica coffee needs 1500 to 3000 millimeters of annual rainfall. Robusta coffee can grow best at sea level, about 800 meters above sea level. Arabica coffee grows best in high altitudes like in hilly areas.

As the coffee mainly grows in hilly areas, mechanical harvest action is impossible, so farmers use their hands to pick the ripe cherry fruits. However, some countries have flat landscapes for growing the fruit, so these machines are used to select the ripe cherries.

A good tree can produce up to 5 kilos of cherries with about 50 to 90 good fruit cherries, giving up to 18 kilos of good coffee beans per day.

What is a Coffee Tree Called?

The coffee tree is popularly known for its origin name called Coffea Arabica. There are about 120 varieties of coffee plants, and every variety gives a different type of coffee bean. 

How Are Coffee Fruits Harvested? 

You can harvest coffee fruit cherries by the striped picked method and the selectively picked method. 

In the striped picked method, the cherry tree is given a strong jerk either by machine or by hand, and all the cherries are gathered in one place.

Only the ripe cherries are taken from the tree for selectively picking, and it is usually done by hand. During the harvest process, the pickers check the ripened fruits after every ten days. The selective picking process is usually done for picking Arabica coffee fruit.

How can I Increase the Productivity of My Coffee Tree? 

Proper care and maintenance of a coffee tree can increase the productive years of a coffee tea. Here are a few tips on how to improve the productive years of a coffee tree:

• Take care of the coffee tree during its earlier stages. The plantation time and adequate care will ultimately determine how long the tree will be productive. 
• Replace ungrown seedlings. It is essential to remove any potential diseases or any pathogenic attack. 
• Coffee trees should be grown with some distance between them to give space for the coffee plant to grow. 
• The soil must not be bare and should be covered. Covering the coffee tree in its initial years protects it from soil erosion and soil moisture.
• Gardeners should remove the weeds at the proper time. 
• Actively prune the coffee trees at least once a year.
• Apply fertilizers to the coffee trees when required. 

A coffee tree starts yielding fruit in its third year of age and becomes most productive between ages 7 to 20. However, the production decreases significantly after 30 years of the age of the coffee tree. Therefore, the caring methods mentioned above will help increase the productive years of the coffee tree.

Where Do Coffee Beans Come From? 

Coffee beans come from the bushes like the evergreen tree of cherry fruits in which beans are known as coffee beans. There are two flat coffee beans found in each cherry fruit of the coffee plant.

It takes about one year for the coffee plant to carry the fragrant white flowers to produce and nearly four years to grow fruits only at the commercial level. And after ten years it will give the best commercial growth. The average life span of a coffee tree is about 30 to 40 years but can live long if proper care is provided.

When the cherry fruit on the coffee tree gets red, it’s time to harvest them, but it should be done keenly because the harvesting method will directly contribute to the final taste.

Where Can you Grow the Best Coffee in the World? 

Brazil, Vietnam, Indonesia, Columbia, and Ethiopia are the famous regions where the best coffee globally is grown.

These regions provide favorable weather to grow the coffee treas. However, the taste of the coffee depends on where they are growing, and the type of soil used.

Which Type of Plant Gives Good Coffee Beans? 

Two coffee plants that produce coffee most preferred by the world are coffee Robusta and Coffee Arabica. 

The Arabica coffee tree is one of the very famous types of coffee, and it is the first coffee that was grown in 1000 BC. Its beans are oval. It is the most consumed coffee in the world, which comes from the Arabica coffee tree. These are sweeter and have a fruity smell with high acidity. It is also the more expensive coffee in the world.

Robusta coffee beans are best grown in Africa, Indonesia and Vietnam. These beans have a lower acidity level than Arabica coffee. As a result, the beans in Robusta coffee are rounder than Arabica coffee beans and have pale-colored beans.