COFFEE - Heaven in our own valley!
SCIENTIFIC NAME: Coffea arabica
FAMILY: Rubiaceae
The morning was clear and crisp and there was a definite twitchiness in the air... real coffee was on the wind. For the next few hours we would be in coffee heaven - we were off to Phil and Louise Gray's Langdon Coffee plantation, and those in the lead were definitely in need of a fix!
The Coffee Convoy picked up speed as we headed through Mirani. Dreaming of the hills below Mt Kilimanjaro, floating on the smells of espresso, envisioning dark roast and glorious golden beans. The locals were not aware of the measures many of our group could go to experience that first full morning breath of "Coffea arabica".
Orchard
Phil has approximately 8,500 coffee trees on the 5.5 acres. Mundo Nova is grown with some other cultivars. Other types have been tried by the RIRDC for their suitability for growing in Queensland and Northern NSW, such as Catuai Rojo, K7, SL6, Catuai Amarillo and Kieperson. Phil's trees are planted at around 700mm spacings with rows approximately 3 m apart. The questions were soon coming hot and strong, all eager to know what we could do with the handful of beans on the tree down the back yard to transform them into magic aromatic coffee beans!
Water
Rainfall is probably one of the most critical requirements for coffee growing. In some growing regions, water stressing and then heavy irrigation is used to control flowering and fruit ripening. Basically, they will not tolerate water logging and the natural watercourse on Phil's property could be distinguished by some poorly performing trees. Pinto peanut is used as a ground cover between the rows to help with erosion and to pump nitrogen back into the soil. Phil does use fertilizer on his trees - processed chook manure, keeping an eye to ensure the plants have plenty of potassium.
Growing coffee trees in full sun results in the trees having a high nutrient demand - don't forget these trees are from a rainforest and when given better conditions will grow tall! The trees at Phil's are pruned to a height suitable for hand picking. In other countries where commercial harvesters are used, the trees can be larger, such as in Kenya and Tanzania. If left unchecked, the trees can grow to l0-12 m in natural rainforest conditions. For hand-picking, you can have a multi-stemmed plant, for machine harvesting, a single stem will result in less damage to the tree.
Pests and diseases
Fortunately coffee trees are quite resistant to disease and pests. In Australia we are free of coffee berry disease and coffee rust, the major world diseases of coffee trees. Green coffee scale and mealy bug are the two most common pests. As for diseases, Cercospora, a fungus, which causes leaf spotting, defoliation and premature ripening of the fruit is the only significant disease. It is particularly prevalent in warm wet weather and early field establishments. It can be controlled by foliar copper sprays.
The fruit is picked when turning red, on the Arabica variety which Phil has growing. Robusta variety can also be grown but generally produces a lower quality flavour coffee. If the berries are picked when green they result in a bitter taste when processed. In Africa the fruit is left to dry on the tree. This can again make the flavour bitter or not, as delicate flavour.
Flowering
The main flowering period is during November. Arabica are self pollinating Robusta cross, and each flower pollinated can result in 2 half-beans. Don't try to divide into 43 - that's for instant drinkers. Phil produces hand-picked "van roasted" home-ground COFFEE! The flowers are white, grouped in clusters in the axils of the leaves, and are said to resemble a sweet smelling jasmine. Fruit is produced only from new growth. When a plant is mature at 4-5 years it can be counted on to give a regular yield.
Harvest
Phil has approximately 5 picks per plant to ensure that the berries are picked to ensure maximum yield for the crop. It is labour intensive, but he does not employ pickers at this stage. Family help out when needed. However, as the crop is maturing and the plants establishing themselves, he may be employing some pickers next season. By picking by hand, the possibility of including green berries and reducing the quality of the final roast is avoided (the deeper the red the better the coffee.). The berry should have the bean extracted within 8 hours of harvesting to prevent the pulp and surrounding films from fermenting. This affects the flavour quality and thus the price of the processed bean.
Process
Once the fruit is picked, the bean is extracted with a machine called a pulper which comes from England. The beans are fermented in water overnight; in the cold weather this process might take up to two days. The beans are then washed until the water runs clear then dried in the sun for a week. At this stage it's called 'parchment'. It still has 2 layers of skin and can be stored for up to seven years.
The beans are not hulled or roasted until there are orders to fill. The husks are removed with a machine called a huller and the beans can only be stored for 6-12 months at this stage.
The husk is used as mulch around plants. It takes 7 kg of cherries to produce 1 kg of green beans. The green beans are sorted into size; if they were sold at this stage, the larger beans are worth more money.
The beans are then roasted in a special oven (that takes up to 3kg) at 200 to 212 degrees depending on the desired result, that is, light, medium, dark or espresso.
The inside of the oven is like a tumble clothes dryer so the beans are continually on the move to keep them all roasting equally. When they are released from the oven onto a circular tray with small holes, the motion still continues so they cool as quickly as possible. This stops the cooking process, as burnt beans become very bitter and would spoil the finished product. The roasted beans are put through the coffee grinder and packed to keep them fresh. Some of the buyers prefer to buy them whole and then grind them as required. Once the bean is ground, it looses its unique taste very quickly.
International Quality
Checking out some of the statistics, in 1996 Australia produced 200t of green bean (the final stage before roasting) and we imported 49,000t. Of the 200t produced, over 100t was exported - so we can grow high quality coffee! Adding to this the increase in Australians now consuming "Roast and Ground" coffee v instants, the Australian domestic market was estimated to be at $483 million. Mind you, it is small: the world coffee trade is around A $24 billion annually.
DATE: August 2001
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