TERROIR - Coffee from Seed to Harvest

Terroir Coffee from Seed to Harvest

by Jem Challender / Barista Hustle Education

We begin our journey in the Continent of Africa, exploring the coffee plant’s physiology and the importance of its environment. Tracing the origins of arabica coffee back to the wild trees of the Ethiopian highlands and cloud forests.

Overview

Great coffee is the result of a plant’s genotype and the terroir that surrounds it. The environmental factors of climate and soil, combined with farming techniques, create the specific environment, or terroir, of a farm. Some of the environmental factors that affect a coffee plant in its lifetime, such as the elevation at which it grows, are impossible to alter. Others, such as soil nutrition, can be altered, but often only with vast capital expenditure.

To get a clearer picture of the finances of farm management and how aspects of