by Tabitha Easley

Created on: August 07, 2008   Last Updated: August 26, 2008

There is nothing like watching the sunrise while enjoying the aroma and taste of a freshly brewed coffee in the morning. But where does your morning cup of coffee come from and what does it have to go through to achieve that morning, "Ah," after your first sip?

With more than 1/3 of the coffee grown in the world being consumed by American's, it makes you wonder, just where does this coffee come from? There are sixty different varieties of coffee in the world, but Hawaii is the only region where coffee is grown in the United States. There are many uses for coffee today. It is used to make cappuccinos, espressos, lattes and more. Coffee is definitely very high in demand.

Coffee beans are a fruit which matures slowly. They grow on tree branches in white jasmine-like blossoms that last just over a day. Taking three to five years, the plants produce only with the right climate. There are two commercially cultivated coffees, Arabica and Robusta. Arabica trees usually only produce a little over a pound of green coffee beans per season and are typically lower in caffeine then Robusta, but these beans are of very high quality. Arabica coffee beans are grown at elevations of 3,000 to 6,000 ft where there is very little frost. Most of the gourmet and specialty coffee shops order and serve the Arabica coffee

The Robusta plants are grown at sea level up to 2,000 ft. and are usually more resistant to drought and diseases than the Arabica. Their trees produce twice as much per season, but they are not as high quality. Most of your instant coffees are of produced from Robusta beans.

There are three commercial methods of growing coffee to satisfy the world's demand for this commodity. Yes, coffee is a commodity and it's traded on the world market, just like oil and gold. In fact coffee is the second most valuable commodity in the world just behind oil.

The three methods are organic, fair-trade and shade-grown.

Shade-grown is by far the most destructive to the world's eco-system. Since a majority of the world's coffee in grown in either tropical rain forests or a native rain forest environment, other industries which are involved in cutting down these areas for lumber are depleting the regions. This method also calls for adding chemical fertilizers and pesticides to the growing process. By decreasing the tropical rain forests to promote the dense planting of coffee brushes also reduces the natural habitat for both prey and predator animals, and it causes unnatural erosion in these

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