I didn’t know before that coffee beans grow inside of a sweet cherry. I also was lucky enough to see a coffee plant with the white flowers that smelled like jasmine. Apparently, this is rare to see.
Coffee plants can be found all over the world! Most coffee is grown in places like Latin America, east Africa, east Asia and southeast Asia. In Panama, the best coffee grows in the Boquete region in the mountains. There are two main types of coffee: Arabica and Robusta. Arabica coffee grows best at high altitudes (in mountainous and hilly areas) while Robust coffee grows best closer to sea-level.
When coffee plants grow in the forest (not when they are planted by farmers), they usually grow under other trees. This is because coffee plants cannot be in direct sunlight for long periods of time. Just three hours of direct sunlight could kill this plant. Coffee plants grow best in regions that have temperatures between 59-77 degrees F and between 60-110 inches of annual rainfall. A slight change in the kind of soil the coffee plants grow in can even affect how the coffee tastes!
Things like fungus, insects, bacteria and mold are just a couple of environmental threats to coffee plants. Many wild coffee plants, like wild Arabica and wild Robusta, are endangered due to climate change. Wild coffee is used to supply seeds for coffee farming, so if these plants become extinct in the wild, farmers all over the world could lose their income growing coffee.
