Coffee Talk 1

How many coffee cherries does the average American use in a year?

• If the average American drinks 3 cups of coffee a day (1,095 cups a year); and
• On average, 45 cups of coffee (6-8 ounce cups) can be made from 1 lb. of roasted coffee beans which means the average American would need 24.33 lbs of roasted coffee beans a year.
• (Green coffee beans lose 20% of their weight when they are roasted)
• 1 lb. of roasted Arabica coffee = 4,000 green, unroasted coffee beans
• This means the average American needs 97,320 green coffee beans a year
• Each cherry has two beans

Answer: 48,660 coffee cherries

The average Arabica coffee tree produces around 10 lbs. of cherries per year (2 lbs of green, unroasted beans) and the average American would need 16 coffee trees a year to feed their coffee habit.

What coffee trees need to be healthy:

• ​Plenty of water. As you can see from the picture below, when it rains here... it really rains. Lately, it has been down-pouring for a couple of hours every other day. Our trees also have plenty of shade trees mixed in the fields, to help keep the ground from drying out in the sun, but being on a hill means there is plenty of drainage.
• Fertilizer. We have been using organic fertilizer on the trees and last week they received their 3rd treatment. The soil gets tested and then we decide which fertilizer combination to add to get the best coffee. 
• Soil. The soil here on the farm is volcanic and already rich with nutrients.
• Temperate climate. The average temperature on the farm has been 65 degrees for the low and 81 degrees Fahrenheit this month.
• Good coffee pickers. If a picker swipes a branch, leaves and all, when he/she is taking the coffee from the tree, it will hurt the tree for future crops. Pickers are paid either by the pound or by the bucket/sack full each day. So gathering a ton of the cherries all at once means more money. However, not all of the cherries are ripe at the same time and no one wants leaves and twigs mixed in with their coffee. So paying the pickers well and giving incentives for only the ripe cherries means the coffee is a little more expensive, but better quality coffee in the end.
  

Difference between Arabica and Robusta Coffee

• Caffeine and Taste: Robusta has a higher caffeine level, which makes it taste more bitter and sometimes a slightly burnt rubbery taste. 
• Sugar: Arabica has twice the sugar and more lipids than Robusta.
  
• Cost: Arabica is harder to grow and requires more specific conditions than Robusta coffee trees, which makes Arabica more expensive.
  
• Yield: Robusta's caffeine level makes the tree more resistant to insects and the tree naturally has a larger yield. It is often used as a filler due to the lower cost, high yield and higher caffeine levels by some companies.

This Week
We are working hard to get ready for this year's crop. This week we should have our corporation papers and will be close to opening up our online store. There is still much to do and we are still unpacking, so by the end of each night, we are thoroughly exhausted.

As far as the puppies go, we have only had 2 "accidents" in the last 4 days...yay! They are sleeping well at night in their new dog house/kennel and they have adapted well to living on the farm, but are a little too interested in the fertilizer we use on the coffee trees...sigh.

We have met some new friends here and are going to catch up with some old friends this afternoon.

Feel free to ask me any questions!

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