Coffee: Overview

Coffee has been the beverage of choice to jump-start Americans on the go. On the mountainsides of Ethiopia, the native understory coffee tree grows to twenty or thirty feet in the dappled shade of the rain-forest canopy. There are many species of coffee plant, but only two have proved to be commercially viable. Coffea arabica, the original Ethiopian species, considered superior in taste, accounts for 75 percent of world consumption. It grows best in mild tropical climates between three thousand and six thousand feet above sea level. Coffea canephora, also known as Coffea robusta, has twice the caffeine, is more disease-resistant, endures hotter temperatures, and has a more bitter taste. It was discovered in the Congo in the late nineteenth century.