• Coffee trees are indigenous to Ethiopia and the Arabian Peninsula. They were transplanted to other parts of the world by Dutch merchants and other explorers.
• Some coffee trees have the potential to grow to a height of 30 to 40 feet. However, most are kept much shorter for ease of harvest.
• The average coffee tree bears enough cherries each season to produce between 1 and 1½ pounds of roasted coffee.
• The soil, climate, altitude, and surrounding plants that a coffee tree is exposed to during growth affect the flavour of the beans it produces.

Arabica vs. Robusta Coffee Beans - There are two commercially-important coffee species: coffea arabica and coffea canephora (robusta). Arabica coffee (about 75 percent of world production) grows best at high altitudes, has a much more refined flavour than other species, and contains about 1 percent caffeine by weight. As the name indicates, robusta coffee is a robust species, resistant to disease, with a high yield per plant. It flourishes at lower elevations and produces coffee with harsher flavour characteristics. Starbucks buys only the highest quality arabica coffees available, beans whose flavour develops fully through the Starbucks Roast®.

Harvesting Coffee. Every year in November and December, coffee farmers all over the world are harvesting coffee.