Guatemala Antigua coffee is my favorite all around drinking coffee. Its naturally lower in caffeine with a very well balanced taste. Brewed in my french press its just perfect.
Also, I love chocolate covered roasted coffee beans. They are naturally caffeinated.
Although coffee doesnt grow natively in California (its originally from Africa) there are many cultivated trees, and its grown commercially in Hawaii, which is the source for some very rich, mild coffee a lot like Guatemalan coffee. But its pretty expensive, and also California. also, I bet also Puerto Rico.
It can grow in a cool coastal climate as long as it doesnt freeze hard it does okay. It likes heat but not extreme heat.
Some microclimates in California are good for coffee. Many many years ago, my mother had two friends who lived in the Escondito area, on Palomar Mountain near Pauma Valley. It was really a paradise there. This couple had an incredible garden and they grew and roasted their own coffee which I remembered for a long time. It was a quite amazing taste. Also, a while ago, more than a decade ago, I lost my sense of smelll due to toxic mold for over a year, and the smell of coffee was the first (glorious) smell that I remember smelling when it finally came back. I was in a coffee and tea store. I'll never forget that moment, or that smell. I felt like I had been reborn.
This imprinting is actually why coffee evolved its caffeine, to make pollinators remember where they found the delicious pollen, or so I was told by an particularly knowledgeable analytical chemist. Related chemicals are involved when people fall in love.
If you know what coffee looks like you can and will recognize it growing ornamentally in California in many places. For example on the UCB campus near Euclid, I am pretty sure Ive seen it's distinctive berries and color.
If you live in an appropriate climate it would definitely be fun to grow, harvest and roast your own organic coffee.
Home
Help
Search
Login
Register
