The Germans love coffee. But what do we know about the wake-up call? Check your knowledge. Here are ten important facts about coffee.
We start the day with a cappuccino, chat with colleagues over an espresso, make appointments at the weekend in a café. Coffee connects – and has long been more than a hot drink. With these ten facts you can talk shop in every roastery.
It’s hard to believe, the average German drinks more coffee than mineral and medicinal water – and the trend is rising:
Most Germans like it traditional when it comes to preparation:
One reason: the Germans like to drink large quantities of coffee – like the Scandinavians, whose per capita consumption is significantly higher.
Another reason: They like their coffee mild. That’s why espresso is usually drunk as a cappuccino or latte macchiato, explains Preibisch – i.e. creamy, with lots of milk.
In the long term, however, filter coffee seems doomed to decline. Every year, its consumption decreases by three percent. That may be due to the image: stale, bland, simple in taste.
Filter coffee can taste great if you follow a few basic tips.
If you want to enjoy the full aroma, you should definitely grind your coffee fresh every time – and then brew it as quickly as possible. Because the flavorings in the powder oxidize very quickly, after just 15 to 20 minutes, 60 percent have evaporated.
“A lot of people don’t even know what coffee can really taste like,” says Aylin Ölcer, the 2020 German Barista Champion.
And this is how the perfect filter coffee succeeds – tips from the coffee association:
Be careful when storing!
3 storage tips for optimal coffee aroma:
It all depends on the coffee bean
Ultimately, of course, the quality of the beans is decisive. In the supermarket, customers usually get mixtures that should always taste the same.
Anyone who starts dealing with single-origin coffees will discover an immense variety of very different aromas. As with wine, soil, location, climate and even the vintage play an immense role. Reason enough for a culinary trip around the world.
Like humans, coffee comes from Africa. More precisely from Ethiopia. According to the book “Faszination Kaffee”, published by the German Coffee Association, the people in the province of Kaffa in the highlands of Abyssinia were the first to discover the inspiring effect.
According to legend, a shepherd observed his goats eating the red cherries from a bush and then jumping around excitedly. So he tasted it himself – and was thrilled.
In the beginning, nomads kneaded pounded beans with fat into balls, which they ate as food for the journey. Later, the cherries were infused with leaves like a tea. The Arabs first roasted the beans, and pilgrims drank the black brew in the mosques of Mecca.
From the port city of Mocha in Yemen, traders shipped the “wine of Islam” to all Muslim countries. And in 1624 the first sacks were hauled overboard in the port of Venice – where the famous Café Florian soon opened. Coffee houses in Oxford, London and Paris followed.
In 1673 Germany also got its first coffee house – in Bremen. The exotic beans have been handled and processed in the large Hanseatic cities for centuries, the Hamburg coffee exchange was the most important in the world before the world wars.
Even Frederick the Great was powerless against the Germans’ love of coffee. The Prussian king introduced a state monopoly in 1781, levied high taxes on coffee and sent out coffee snoopers to track down black roasters. All in vain.
Trees and shrubs of the genus Coffea grow around the world in over 70 countries in the coffee belt, between 30 degrees north and south latitude, for example in:
However, two countries dominate the global market: Brazil and Vietnam together produce more than half of the world harvest. On huge plantations, high-yielding varieties are fertilized and irrigated using sophisticated methods, and harvesting is done with machines, especially in Brazil.
Most coffee farmers in Africa and Central America, on the other hand, still pick the cherries by hand – after all, more than a third of the world harvest. In terms of quality, says Holger Preibisch, this archaic method is still unbeatable.
Of the more than a hundred species of coffee trees and shrubs, only two are grown on a large scale, according to the Coffee Association.
Arabica
Arabica was the first species cultivated by European colonists in Sri Lanka, the Caribbean and South America. And for coffee connoisseurs, the oval bean remains the best to this day. Because Arabica contains many oils that make up the aroma:
Robusta
Its name suggests the advantages of the Robusta. This plant lasts
That’s why Robusta tastes good
In addition, it unfolds less fine and complex aromas during roasting. And it has a “typical off-flavor,” says food chemist Sara Marquart, who now conducts research at the Zurich University of Applied Sciences (ZHAW). “You always taste it’s Robusta.”
The right ratio: If you prefer a fine, elegant coffee, you should buy pure Arabica. However, this has its price. Anyone who wants more caffeine is well served with a mixture – depending on taste and caffeine needs, for example in a ratio of 50:50 or 80:20.
In addition to the two top dogs, there are many rare varieties that are the result of crossbreeding. They are called Bourbon, Catimor or Geisha and each has its own character, strengths and weaknesses.
Most are variations of Arabica. Strictly speaking, Robusta itself is just a variety of the Coffea canephora variety.
So far, rare varieties have made up less than one per thousand of the world market, says Holger Preibisch. They are “an absolute niche”.
With climate change becoming more dramatic, however, varieties that tolerate more heat or are resistant to diseases such as coffee rust could become more important.
So far, Arabica makes up 60 percent of the world harvest, Robusta 40 percent. However, climate change is likely to reverse this relationship.
Because by 2050, increasing temperatures would mean that farmers would no longer be able to grow Arabica on half of the previous area, explains Sara Marquart.
In the hills of Central and South America there will probably be more heavy rain, floods and landslides, says Andreas Felsen from the direct importer Quijote coffee in Hamburg. This would increase fungal diseases such as coffee rust.
Droughts are likely to become more frequent in Brazil and Ethiopia. Small farmers who cannot counteract this with mineral fertilizers and pesticides are particularly affected, says Andreas Felsen.
Switching to higher altitudes is complex, expensive and often impossible because of the frost line. The global Arabica harvest is therefore likely to fall over the next few decades, while prices will rise. As a last resort, many farmers will probably switch to Robusta.
For coffee aficionados, these prospects are terrifying. For the industry, however, the problems can be solved, says Holger Preibisch from the coffee association. The growing areas are likely to shift, and he is also focusing on new, resistant breeds. A key to this could be the gene pool of wild coffee.
Hand on heart: Coffee does not have the best ecological balance.
But coffee drinkers can certainly reduce their ecological footprint. Here are 4 tips:
Coffee was a colonial commodity for a long time, and to this day it is grown in the poor countries of the Global South and drunk primarily in wealthy industrialized countries.
And coffee is one of the most important raw materials on the world market, millions of farmers depend on it. Fair trade and organic initiatives are therefore a must.
There are a corresponding number of seals:
Basically, every seal is better than none.
The problem is that sustainable and fair trade is not regulated by law – unlike the EU organic seal, which is subject to an EU regulation. That means: “Everyone can call themselves fair,” says Holger Preibisch.
Many supposed Fairtrade sellers paid the farmers “anachronistic low prices”, criticizes Andreas Felsen from Quijote Kaffee in Hamburg. The direct importer pays three US dollars per Anglo-Saxon pound, i.e. 454 grams – around twice as much as the world market price. And prices automatically go up with inflation, says Felsen.
More importantly for the farmers, importers like Quijote, Weltpartner, GEPA, El Puente, Ethiquable guarantee the smallholder cooperatives to buy at least the same amount next year.
With small roasters, customers can easily test whether they are fair and sustainable or whether the alleged attitude is just marketing blah-blah.
Andreas Felsen advises asking the roastery directly:
Every really fair roastery can answer and give specific figures. “You quickly hear excuses from the others.”
