All about coffeeUkers, William H. (William Harrison)
History
All about coffee
Ukers, William H. (William Harrison)
Coffee; Coffee Industry; Drinking customs
But here, the winter winds are not to blame: the soft, gentle breezes of
the perpetual summer have wrought the havoc, leaving, however, a not
unpleasing picture of dark, cool, mossy green foliage.
The flowers are beautiful, but the eye of the planter sees in them not
alone beauty and fragrance. He looks far beyond, and in his mind's eye
he sees bags and bags of green coffee, representing to him the goal and
reward of all his toil. After the flowers droop, there appear what are
commercially known as the coffee berries. Botanically speaking, "berry"
is a misnomer. These little fruits are not berries, such as are well
represented by the grape; but are drupes, which are better exemplified
by the cherry and the peach. In the course of six or seven months, these
coffee drupes develop into little red balls about the size of an
ordinary cherry; but, instead of being round, they are somewhat
ellipsoidal, having at the outer end a small umbilicus. The drupe of the
coffee usually has two locules, each containing a little "stone" (the
seed and its parchment covering) from which the coffee bean (seed) is
obtained. Some few drupes contain three, while others, at the outer ends
of the branches, contain only one round bean, known as the peaberry. The
number of pickings corresponds to the different blossomings in the same
season; and one tree of the species _arabica_ may yield from one to
twelve pounds a year.
[Illustration: YOUNG COFFEA ARABICA TREE AT KONA, HAWAII]
In countries like India and Africa, the birds and monkeys eat the ripe
coffee berries. The so-called "monkey coffee" of India, according to
Arnold, is the undigested coffee beans passed through the alimentary
canal of the animal.
[Illustration: SURVIVORS OF THE FIRST LIBERIAN COFFEE TREES INTRODUCED
INTO JAVA IN 1876]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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