COFFEE BIOGRAPHY

Introduction

In United States, coffee is a very common drink among the entire population particularly
young people. On average, people consumes 1.6 cups of coffee every day in the US. The normal
coffee drinking in the US is 3.2 cups of coffee every day among the coffee drinkers. The primary
focus of this essay is to construct an “object biography” of coffee through where and how it is
produced, who produces it, how it is used by the producers, trading of coffee both locally and
globally, who controls trade and the benefits and the impact of production on the environment.

Field observations

Coffee grows in about eighty nations in Central and South America, Africa, Caribbean
and Asia. Three-quarters of the coffee that is cultivated in the world is Arabica coffee. It is
produced in East and Central Africa, India, Latin America and to some degree Indonesia.
Robusta coffee is planted in West and Central Africa in South-East Asia and to some degree in
Brazil. Brazil is the leading exporting country of coffee but around 1995 and 1999 Vietnam
triplicated its exports and turn out to be a Robusta beans leading producer. Indonesia makes the
third- biggest exporter of coffee and the leading producer of washed Arabica coffee. US is the
largest consumer of coffee and I wanted to see the rate of consumption, particularly in New
York. New York City has the higher consumers of coffee across the globe. To remain diverse
and relevant I chose three locations in the New York and these are: Albany, Buffalo and Mount
Vernon. The city I observed how individuals consume coffee in the US to see which population
that mostly consumed coffee in the US was.
Albany City was chosen because it has the greatest number of professionals. These
people grab a cup of coffee on their way to work in the morning and later in the evening while

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they are coming from work. They drink coffee to catch up with friends and release some work
pressure. To record how people in Albany consumed coffee, a table was drawn with two
columns to examine how many cups of coffee that coffee lovers consumed per day. This was
done also in Buffalo and Mount Vernon so as to gain an overview of how coffee was consumed
and this was done for the entire day. A lot of coffee is consumed in the morning hours when it is
still chilly and in the evening. With regard to the observations of consumption of coffee in
Albany was done on Monday at 8.00am and 7.30pm in the evening, and in Buffalo and Mount
Vernon it was done on Tuesday and Wednesday on the same time. The data that I collected
would enable me to calculate the percentage of people who consume coffee every day and the
number of cups that they consume on average every day in New York. It will also enable me to
compare how coffee is consumed on these three locations in New York.
In Albany the rates of consumption of coffee were abit higher compared to Mount
Vernon and Buffalo. The coffee lovers makes consumes three to four cups of coffee a day. My
observations shown that there was a small number of coffee consumers in Buffalo compared to
Albany, Mount Vernon and this can be attributed to less the small number of white collar job
employees. Albany has the largest number of coffee consumers because it has a lot of white
collar job population and it is also a busy city compared to the other cities. These individuals
pick coffee on their way to work and from work in the evening to cool their nerves and interact
with friends. The cities had a lot of coffee joints and this made it convenient for people who
works in offices to grab a cup of coffee on their way to work and after. I saw a lot of coffee
consumers in New York and this can be attributed to the busy schedule that they individuals in
the city have. Young people were the main consumers of coffee since they comprise the greatest
number of the professionals in New York. Albany had the highest number of coffee buyers. The

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greatest number of coffee consumers were found within the city and not in the suburbs because
most white collar professionals are concentrated within the city but not in the suburbs. Also a
great number of the coffee shops are concentrated in the city and that is the reason why there is a
great number of coffee consumers in the city because they can conveniently access the coffee
shops. By making use of this data that I collected, there are 18% consumers of coffee in Mount
Vernon, 34% of consumers of coffee in Buffalo and 48% consumers of coffee consumers in
Albany. New York City has the greatest number of coffee consumers in US. I believe that coffee
is the most consumed hot drink in the US particularly in the New York City. The reason why it is
the favorite drink is because of the availability of a lot of coffee shops that are conveniently
located within the city making it easy for professionals to access it. 1
Library Research

Production of coffee begins at harvesting. Coffee is produced through an industrial
process of converting coffee plant raw fruit into finished coffee. Coffee cherry is removed from
the fruit and then dried. Processing of coffee is done immediately it is picked to prevent spoilage
of the fruit. After coffee is produced it is then sold in countries that are believed to be the target
audience and where the primary consumer of coffee lives. Coffee undergoes through a process
before its final products gets to the consumer.
It is very vital to start from the initial stage of coffee production so as to offer an
accurate biography of coffee. Coffee is produced in two methods dependent on the location and
indigenous resources that are available. The first method is through Wet Method where the pulp
from the coffee cherry is removed so that the bean is dried up while only having the parchment

1 Coltro, Leda, Anna Mourad, Paula Oliveira, Jose Baddini, and Rojane Kletecke. “Environmental profile of Brazilian
green coffee (6 pp).” The International Journal of Life Cycle Assessment 11, no. 1 (2006): 16-21.

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skin. The other method is the dry method. This is a traditional method of coffee production and it
is used in most nations where there is water scarcity. The recently picked cherries are spread and
left to dry on a huge surface to avoid spoiling and they are covered in the night to avoid them
from getting wet. The after the coffee beans are dried they are then roasted to give coffee. There
are diverse types of coffee depending on the kind roasting that was done on the coffee beans. US
is one of the leading consumer of coffee and most of its population consumes coffee. I believe
that the US is the target consumer for most countries that produces coffee.
In the US coffee is traded both locally and globally in dollars and the strength of the
dollar determines the returns that the involved countries gets. US outsources coffee from Brazil,
Vietnam, Africa and Asia and this aids a lot to create a good relationship between countries that
makes and produces coffee. Corporations that make coffee roast the coffee beans for themselves
according to the preferences of the consumer in the United States. Coffee is a most popular
beverage and one of the most traded commodity that is traded in commodities. Green coffee
beans travel for more than 600,000 km to the consumer markets before they get to the cup on the
table. Sucden is a source of Robusta and Arabica beans globally to meet the needs of the
consumer. Labor rights is a major problem that US face because it causes instability and stress
to the works because they are already suffering from great pressure from work related pressure.
The people who controls trade are the consumer countries. Producing code is quite a
tiresome tasks and the producers don’t get to enjoys as much as the consumers. It is therefore
very difficult for countries that produces coffee to benefit a lot from the product that they
produce. In most cases the farmers of the raw products don’t benefit much as the consumers of
the products. 2

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To write an effective biography, the environmental impact that coffee has to be put into
consideration because a great deal of countries are affected by the process of production of
coffee. Roasting of coffee beans in this case involves releasing of smoke to the sky that causes
destruction to the ozone layer. Farming of coffee also entails use of pesticides and herbicides
which flows to the rivers once it rains causing pollution to the water bodies. Water and soil
pollution causes contamination to sources of food which people ingest and this causes a great
deal of health issues to human beings as well as animals. Production of coffee will still have a
great impact on the environment. Coffee affects the social environment by bringing people
together to interact while they enjoy a cup. People can now make friends and connect with old
ones while taking coffee. Locally and globally, coffee has helped to enhance the revenue from
the increased coffee consumption.

Bibliography

2 Laderach, P., Lundy, M., Jarvis, A., Ramirez, J., Portilla, E. P., Schepp, K., & Eitzinger, A. (2011). Predicted impact of
climate change on coffee supply chains. In The economic, social and political elements of climate change (pp. 703-
723). Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg.

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Branum, Amy M., Lauren M. Rossen, and Kenneth C. Schoendorf. “Trends in caffeine intake
among US children and adolescents.” Pediatrics 133, no. 3 (2014): 386-393.
Coltro, L., Mourad, A., Oliveira, P., Baddini, J., & Kletecke, R. (2006). Environmental profile of
Brazilian green coffee (6 pp). The International Journal of Life Cycle Assessment, 11(1),
16-21.
Laderach, P., Lundy, M., Jarvis, A., Ramirez, J., Portilla, E. P., Schepp, K., & Eitzinger, A.
(2011). Predicted impact of climate change on coffee supply chains. In The economic,
social and political elements of climate change (pp. 703-723). Springer, Berlin,
Heidelberg.