Why Araxes Coffee tastes better, not just because of The Spice

(Those are cubes of sugar infused with The Spice)

Why Araxes Coffee tastes better, not just because of The Spice

Araxes Coffee tastes better not just because of The Spice, but also because of the high altitude and thin atmosphere.

Why does the coffee taste better grown (and roasted) at high altitude?

During the relatively early stages of terraforming Araxes, slightly more than 1100 years after first landing, shortly before the discovery of The Spice, the colonists researched what sort of crops could survive and maybe thrive in their still very thin atmosphere of Araxes. Turns out that coffee does very well in a thin atmosphere, and does it best with limited water. Also buckwheat, amaranth, naked barley, alpine rice, beans, various kinds of potatoes, Jerusalem artichoke, asparagus, cabbage, spinach, lettuce, radish, daikon, onion, garlic, coriander, celery, turnips, and carrots. All no doubt great and important, but nothing as exciting as coffee.

Our early colonization era ancestors came from hearty motivated innovative spacefaring stock, so growing crops in enclosed hydroponic containers was already second nature, but that is difficult to do on a very large scale if you have aspirations for a planetwide population. Enclosed hydroponic container requires 11 times more infrastructure and resources per edible calorie than plants than can be grown in the open air or with cold frames. 2-4 times that of hydroponic greenhouses or vertical farms. Open air or with cold frames meant a massive increase in those consumable commodities, it benefited everyone.

There were celebrations, a breakthrough for the colony which heralded great optimism. There was even an increase in children conceived that year.

This was also the time when the barley and amaranth was first brewed to make the now famous artisanal Spiced stout beer known as Splintered Rock. They were good times indeed.

It was the greatest celebration regarding agricultural progress until conditions improved to include cultivation of strawberries and tomatoes.

It was a quaint and innocent time before our ancestor’s discovery of The Spice. We thought this high quality coffee might be the export to allow Araxes a little bit of export income. Our ancestors had humble ambitions back then. They made up for their humble ambitions with epic parties. There were even eccentric clothing-optional art festivals. It was a time of joy and optimism.

We only got to the point where wine grapes and tea can be cultivated in the lowlands about 270 years ago, and just recently in the 800-1600 meter elevation foothills. It’s been only 820 years since we have been able to cultivate and Agave. Araxes make a fine tequila and mescal. 1100 years since we’ve been able to cultivate Crabapple, Chokecherry and Plum.

As Araxes has halted further terraforming (over my belated strenuous objection, but the decision had been made while I was still in stasis), this is as good as it is going to get. If we had halted terraforming 1400 years ago, we might never have had the Spice Wars. Our big mistake was making the air too easily breathable to offworlders, it was expected it to be a bigger benefit than it was. Painful lessons.

High altitude volcanic soils are among the lushest soils for coffee plants to nourish themselves. The soil higher up the mountain is indeed much more fertile and porous making it ideal for coffee growing. The best taste-rated beans are grown on the slopes of volcanoes or in volcanic soil. These soils which are formed in volcanic ash contain many of the trace elements that were present during the formation of the rock, so they haven’t yet been plundered by many hundreds (or thousands) of years of agriculture. They also haven’t suffered from extensive leaching and remain relatively un-weathered. These fertile soils retain a healthy supply of trace elements that often include basic cations such as Magnesium, Calcium, or Potassium. Volcanic soils often contain vesicles, which makes them porous which provides the good drainage that is essential for supplying the high oxygen levels that the coffee plant demands.

Anyone who has spent any amount of time in Araxes has grown familiar with our frequent lightning storms. These lightning storms also adds a great deal of nitrogen to our high altitude volcanic soils.

The higher a coffee bean is grown, the denser and more flavoursome it becomes. This is because the cooler mountain temperatures provides a slower growth cycle for the coffee tree which prolongs the coffee bean development making it denser and harder. This longer maturation process allows the coffee bean to absorb more complex sugars, yielding deeper, more interesting flavours because when the coffee bean gets stressed, the flavour gets richer. Also, better drainage at high elevations also reduces the amount of water in the fruit resulting in a further concentration of flavours. Generally, as growing elevation increases, a coffee’s flavour profile becomes more pronounced and distinctive.

Okay, now we know that fruity and sweet is something that many people enjoy in their cup of coffee. Not everybody maybe, but a whole lot of people. Enough to make high altitude coffee famous.

The more you climb above sea level, the less air pressure there is. The less air there is, in a way. Less oxygen to weigh everything down.

Humans don’t really do well in low air pressure environments. Plants don’t seem to have this problem, though they’re slowed down a bit. Thus the coffee fruit (coffee cherry) takes more time to ripen. Or, you could say it takes just as much time as it needs.

Base Level (we don’t have a 'sea level') in Araxes about 12.75 psi air pressure. The best coffee is grown between 1600-2400 m higher than that, and it gives it a fruity, sweet taste. 1600 m is going to be a chocolate, vanilla, nutty taste, still fairly sweet. 800 m is going to be much milder in taste, not as sweet, and have a earthier taste. Anything below this (lowland coffee) is most likely going to be disappointing. High elevation results in a better development of the flavors inside the cherry, and the complex sugars that give the coffee beans their sweetness are going to shine through.

The minimum air pressure where coffee is grown is about 9.8 psi, about 2400 meters in Araxes. Above 4000 metres, mostly only fungi, mosses, lichens, and non-pollinating plants can grow. However many valuable medicinal plants.

A cup of black coffee made with high altitude beans is amazing. It’s much like simmering a pot of delicious stew for several hours on low heat. The food is done, yes, but the flavors need some more time to mingle and develop.

This means that lower altitude lowland coffees tend to taste more earthy, and well bland in my not so humble opinion. This is partly because of the air pressure, and also because of the terrain on which the coffee grows.

Growing coffee on the side of a mountain is hard work. Planting it, caring for the plants, tending to their needs, harvesting the cherries and processing and finally shipping them. There need to be dedicated people and specialized machines in order for all this to work.

It’s often not easy for machines to get up the slopes, because of this picking the coffee cherries is still often done by hand. As is sorting the 'green' coffee beans, and picking out any odd ones.

This makes the process take longer, but ensures quality and it’s often the only way to do things in some places.

Most people plant Arabica (although I have a personal preference for Liberica), and that’s a fairly sensitive plant. If it gets any kind of pests, it will easily yield a poor crop. Pest control is a big thing on coffee plantations. Even the surrounding area beyond the farms is often controlled, for quality’s sake. Fewer pests and pathogens at high altitudes.

Why does it matter that it’s a mountain? Why not a hill, some 1600 m above sea level? Mountain area matters specifically because of the steepness of the mountain. A hill is a hill, unless we’re talking about some very steep hills that can manage a 70 degree angle and still be called hills.

Inclination matters because of the way the rain water drains, and not pool around the coffee plants. Coffee is very sensitive to water, which means that if it takes too much water it will become a muddy, bland coffee bean. This is why flat-land coffee tastes so bland.

If your coffee cherry doesn’t take more water than it needs, it means it can develop its flavors much better, and result in a sweeter, fruitier bean. There is also the fact that the mountain areas often have clouds coming to and fro.

Coffee does need sunshine, but it needs more the pure morning sunshine which makes the low latitudes perfect because no scorching. Ideally, when the weather changes during the day and becomes overcast, or switches between cloudy and sunny often, the coffee has a chance to cool off.

If the coffee plants don’t get more sunshine than they need, which means they won’t be scorched. This is why the low latitude coffees in Araxes are so splendid.

Along with this comes the fact that temperatures are usually lower in mountain areas. Even in subtropical regions, the wind blows and cools the mountains to a bearable temperature. This doesn’t always reach the hills or flats, and results in frequent droughts and heatwaves in those places.

Mountains offer steep surfaces to drain the excess water, sufficient cloud cover, and a cooler temperature. Don’t forget about temperature there, because it’s almost more important than the altitude.

The thinness of the air at high elevations also helps with this, though it’s not necessarily THE key. Think of it like:

40% proper temperature

30% air pressure

15% sunshine type and daytime cloud ratio

15% proper drainage

Of course, proper coffee plant care needs more than that, like the quality of the soil it gets and how well people tend to it.

1600 m at the Equator are going to be cooler than flat lands at the Equator. But they’re warmer than 1600 metres at 30 degrees latitude.

What about roasting the coffee at higher altitudes, would that impact the final taste? High altitude roasting can result in lower temperatures used for roasting. This means that the beans don’t have to spend as much time in the roaster, and the roaster can be on a very low setting.

The reason is again, the air pressure. Low air pressure means heat ‘forms’ faster, as in boiling water or heating something up. It gets to the desired state faster, and you don’t need to use as much heat, or for as long. So your light roast coffee will come out light, but with less heat used. The taste will be great, especially if you’re using a high altitude coffee to begin with.