Coffee: The Daily Cup with a Much Bigger Story

A drink can be an everyday routine, something shared with company, or a way to explore a food tradition. The background below looks more closely at the preparation and story behind the cup or glass.

In this story

Overview Mass production Roast characteristics Serving "Functional coffee"Instant coffee World production

Overview

Coffee is a beverage brewed from roasted, ground coffee beans. Dark-colored and bitter, coffee has a stimulating effect on humans due to its caffeine content; however decaffeinated coffee is also commercially available. There are also various coffee substitutes.

Coffee production begins when the seeds from coffee cherries, the Coffea plant's fruits, are separated to produce unroasted green coffee beans. The "beans" are roasted and then ground into fine particles. Coffee is brewed from the ground roasted beans, which are typically steeped in hot water before being filtered out. It is usually served hot, although chilled or iced coffee is common. Coffee can be prepared and presented in a variety of ways, e.g., espresso, French press, caffè latte, or already-brewed canned coffee. Sugar, sugar substitutes, milk, and cream are often added and change the flavor.

Though coffee has become a global commodity, it has a history tied to food traditions around the Red Sea. The earliest reports of coffee drinking pertain to the plant's use among the Sufis of Yemen in southern Arabia in the middle of the 15th century. Up to the end of the 17th century, most of the world's coffee was imported from Yemen. As it gained in popularity, coffee started to be cultivated in Java in the 17th century and the Americas from the 18th century.

Mass production

In the late 16th century, Yemen developed a booming coffee economy. Farmers grew coffee on mountain terraces above the Tihamah plain, and trade routes linked its ports to Jeddah and Cairo. By the 17th century, coffee had surpassed the global spice trade. Up to the end of the 17th century, Yemen was the world's main producer for coffee, and Mocha was the world's largest shipping port for coffee.

Coffee was introduced to Brazil in 1727, but its cultivation did not gather momentum until independence in 1822. After this time, massive tracts of rainforest were cleared for coffee plantations, first around Rio de Janeiro and later São Paulo. Brazil went from having essentially no coffee exports in 1800 to being a significant regional producer in 1830, to being the largest producer in the world by 1852. Between 1910 and 1920, Brazil exported around 70% of the world's coffee; Colombia, Guatemala, and Venezuela exported 15%; and Old World production accounted for less than 5% of world exports.

Many countries in Central America took up cultivation in the latter half of the 19th century, and almost all were involved in the large-scale displacement and exploitation of indigenous people. Harsh conditions led to many uprisings, coups, and bloody suppression of peasants. The notable exception was Costa Rica, where a lack of ready labor prevented the formation of large farms. Smaller farms and more egalitarian conditions ameliorated unrest over the 19th and 20th centuries.

Roast characteristics

The degree of roast affects coffee flavor and body. The color of the coffee after brewing is also affected by the degree of roasting. Darker roasts are generally bolder because they have less fiber content and a more sugary flavor. Lighter roasts have a more complex and therefore perceived stronger flavor from aromatic oils and acids otherwise destroyed by longer roasting times. Roasting does not alter the amount of caffeine in the bean but does give less caffeine when the beans are measured by volume because the beans expand during roasting. A small amount of chaff is produced during roasting from the skin left on the seed after processing; is usually removed from the seeds by air movement, though a small amount is added to dark roast coffees to soak up oils on the seeds.

Serving

Once brewed, coffee may be served in a variety of ways. Drip-brewed, percolated, or French-pressed/cafetière coffee may be served as white coffee with a dairy product such as milk or cream, or dairy substitute, or as black coffee with no such addition. It may be sweetened with sugar or artificial sweetener. When served cold, it is called iced coffee. Popular iced coffee options include frappés, iced lattes, or stronger brewed coffee served with ice.

Espresso-based coffee has a variety of possible presentations. In its most basic form, an espresso is served alone as a shot or short black, or with hot water added, when it is known as caffè americano. A long black is made by pouring a double espresso into an equal portion of water, retaining the crema, unlike caffè americano. Milk is added in various forms to an espresso: steamed milk makes a caffè latte, equal parts steamed milk and milk froth make a cappuccino, and a dollop of hot foamed milk on top creates a caffè macchiato.

"Functional coffee"

Coffee can also be blended with ingredients claimed to improve health in a form described as a "functional coffee" drink. Additions used include mushrooms, of which some of the most frequently used include lion's mane, chaga, Cordyceps, and reishi. Mushroom coffee has about half the caffeine of standard coffee. However, drinking mushroom coffee can result in digestive issues, and high amounts of powdered reishi mushroom can result in liver toxicity. There is little clinical evidence for the benefits of mushroom coffee.

"Functional" additions also include protein powder, collagen, and ashwagandha.

Instant coffee

Many products are sold for the convenience of consumers who do not want to prepare their coffee or who do not have access to coffeemaking equipment. Instant coffee is dried into soluble powder or freeze-dried into granules that can be quickly dissolved in hot water. A New Zealand invention and staple, instant coffee was originally invented in Invercargill in 1890 by food chemist David Strang. It rapidly gained in popularity in many countries in the post-war period, with Nescafé being the most popular product. Many consumers determined that the convenience of preparing a cup of instant coffee more than made up for a perceived inferior taste, although, since the late 1970s, instant coffee has been produced differently in such a way that is similar to the taste of freshly brewed coffee.

Paralleling (and complementing) the rapid rise of instant coffee was the coffee vending machine invented in 1947 and widely distributed since the 1950s.

World production

In 2023, world production of green coffee beans was 11 million tonnes, led by Brazil with 31% of the total and Vietnam as a secondary producer (table).