Buying

Green Coffee
Green coffee sellers are responsible for grading a coffee before sending the coffee to the buyer. Once graded, “Exceptional” and “Specialty” coffees can still have problems that are not necessarily accounted for in coffee grading. These “defects” are less serious, but harm the potential of the coffee. You can tell a great deal about the processing conditions of a coffee by looking at the appearance of the green coffee. Although cupping is the definitive way to check for problems, the green coffee appearance is a good prognostic tool.

Coffee Plant
The coffee plant is a woody perennial evergreen that belongs to the Rubiaceae family. Two main species are cultivated today. Coffea arabica known as Arabica coffee accounts for 75-80% of the world's production. Coffea canephora, known as Robusta coffee, is a more resilient plant than the Arabica shrubs, but produces an inferior tasting brew. The elliptical leaves of the coffee tree are shiny, dark green, and waxy. Coffee plants can grow to heights of 10 meters if not pruned, but producing countries maintain coffee at three meters to ease picking.

Each hectare of coffee produces 86 lbs of oxygen per day, which is about half the production of the same area in a rain forest. The coffee plant has become a major source of oxygen in much of the world.

Three to four years after the coffee is planted, sweetly smelling flowers grow in clusters in the axils of the leaves. Fruit is produced only in the new tissue. The Arabica species is self-pollinating, whereas the Robusta species depends on cross pollination.