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Interesting Reading

With the holidays I’ve done “A LOT” of reading on the net which has been great fun. I came across a piece at www.portafilter.net talking about an experiment, which put the Bourbon variety of the coffee plant against Caturra (a close family member). Caturra has more branches so it is much more productive. However, most people find Bourbon is better in the cup, so the question was asked why?They got coffee from Caturra and Bourbon plants from a single farm, picked on the same day, processed the same way, roasted the same way. When cupped they found that the Bourbon coffee was better. They repeated the experiment. This time, they removed some of the Caturra’s flowers so it produced the same amount of coffee as the Bourbon. This time, there was no difference in the cup from the two varietals.

Sounds easy doesn’t it, less quantity more quality, but this means less money for the farmer. Its tricky when for years and years people have told the farmer its to do with soil and altitudes and now we turn round and say and while your at it produce a little less and lower your yeild.

A Great piece of work that really improved my coffee understanding, thought it would be nice to share.

About the author Just Steve Leighton

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