Plant sociology

Plant sociology, noun: Term used to describe the “biocenosis” of various plants. In the context of coffee cultivation, it means planting crops and shade trees between the coffee trees.

Precipitation

Precipitation, noun: Criterion for coffee cultivation and quality of the beans. Coffee plants thrive best at a precipitation of approximately 60 to 80 inches of rain per year. Papua New Guinea offers excellent conditions since there are no real droughts here as there are, for example, in Africa.

Preparation

Preparation, noun: Characteristic for biodynamic agriculture. Soil and plant fertility, ripeness quality and diversity are promoted through the use of self-produced fertilizer or spray mixtures made from cow manure, medicinal plants and minerals.

Processing

Processing, noun: Describes the way that coffee berries are prepared into green coffee. In principle, there are three varieties.

1. Wet processing: Gentle form in which the coarsely peeled coffee berries are fermented using water, allowing their full flavor to develop.
2. Dry preparation or sun drying, in which mostly Robustas are dried in the sun without being peeled (i.e., pulped).
3. Semi-dry or semi-washed. Although the outer skin of the berry is removed, some of the pulp of the fruit remains, thereby influencing the aroma.

Pulp

Pulp, noun: The flesh of the fruit of the coffee berry. Removing the pulp is called pulping. The machine used for it is called a pulper.

Pulping

Pulping, verb: Refers to the removal of the pulp of the coffee berry from the seed, also known as the bean.

Residual moisture

Residual moisture, noun: Moisture content of green coffee. The optimum residual moisture is between 11.5% and 12%. Parchment coffee has approximately 30% residual moisture and is therefore dried in the sun or dried mechanically until it reaches the perfect level of residual moisture. For slow sun drying it can take up to 14 days.

Selective picking

Selective picking, noun (also called hand picking): Harvesting coffee by hand, whereby on the really ripe, red berries are picked. Quality indicator. It stands in contrast to stripping.

Shade tree

Shade tree, noun: Since coffee plants are sensitive to the sun, they are grown under the shade of other trees in organic and biodynamic coffee cultivation. Shade trees are usually crops (e.g., bananas) or trees that support the formation of humus/soil health (e.g., eucalyptus, casuarina). Generally, shade trees are only found in small plantations and coffee gardens. Large, industrial plantations hang nets to provide shade and use synthetic fertilizers.