Filenews 29 May 2022 - by Evagoras Prokopiou
Coffee is fully identified with the social life of Cyprus, the professional and social everyday life and concerns all age groups. At the same time, it is an industry in Cyprus with turnover of tens of millions of euros.
In Greece they have Frappe, in Italy the Espresso, in Spain the Cafe bombon, in Ireland the Irish coffee, in Vietnam egg coffee, in Australia the flat white, in South India the Kaapi, in Turkey, they have the Turkish coffee, which like the Greek and the Cypriot is baked in embers, in Sweden and Finland they have the kaffeost, in Mexico the Café de olla, in Brazil they have cafezinho, in Austria they have Melange and we have the Cypriot coffee.
Each country has its coffee or better the way it enjoys this famous beverage. After all, there are many kinds of coffee for all tastes. Impossible, even for those who are not friends of coffee, not to find their own kind.
In Cyprus, coffee has been established since the Turkish occupation and its uninterrupted consumption in the continuous chronicle, even adulterated in times of poverty or commercial control by the conquerors, testifies to its impact on the conscience and everyday life of Cypriots. As a cultural element, it goes hand in hand with the history of the place, it is incorporated into ideologies, it is integrated into the language of the everyday with various expressions, it is targeted for social, religious or political reasons, it functions as an identity, pretext, occasion, promise or consolation and ultimately prevails as a cultural practice until today.
From the male-dominated cafes of the districts and villages to the modern domestic and imported cafes, the culture of coffee is a synthetic element in the DNA of the Cypriot. The choices and qualities are there to satisfy everyone. Coffee in all its versions is sold or served almost everywhere. From the kiosks, to the street canteens, to the restaurants to the bars, to the specialized coffee chains with the professional baristas, but also to the traditional cafes. Questions such as cold or hot, traditional or not are a thing of the past. The specialization in coffee is gaining ground and has slowly entered our lives. The new trends of the sector are increasingly based on the new generation which the coffee industry is trying to gain with modern techniques and ideas.
It is characteristic that a country that does not exceed the million and practically without tourists in 2019 to 2021 during the period December 2019 to November 2020 in Cyprus had been imported 105,000 sacks of coffee of 60 kg, which is the way of measuring the coffee trade according to the Organization International Coffee Organization. Between December 2020 and November 2021, just over 100,000 bags of coffee were imported. Even with these quantities we did not enter the twenty countries worldwide with the most coffee consumption per inhabitant. Based on the statistics, the Scandinavians are presented as the largest drinkers of coffee.
THE FIRST AND "CYPRIOTS" WHO ENDURE
G. Charalambous Coffee Shop was founded in 1943 as a company under the name George Charalambous Ltd and is the first organized coffee shop in Cyprus with pancyprian activity. It is a family business, specializing in the production and distribution of the homonymous Charalambous café in the local market and abroad, with a long and important history in the production of authentic Cypriot coffee. A name interwoven with the modern history of coffee in Cyprus is the Laikon Coffee Shop, which supplies the Cypriot market with the traditional Laiko Cafe since 1948. It was founded by a group of professional coffee makers, equipped with a used manual charcoal and mill, a bicycle for distribution and an initial staff of 6 people.
WHAT DETERMINES THE PRICE OF COFFEE
In general, coffee prices are formed and calculated based on many different factors. Some types of coffee have a higher price because of the process they need to be brewed. Also, a role in the price plays of course the blend... Depending on the quality, origin and rarity of each blend, coffee may differ in price.
THE TWO BASIC SPECIES
There are over 50 types of coffee but the dominant ones are two, which are systematically cultivated and ultimately used all over the world. Coffea arabica and Coffea canephora, which is more commonly known as Coffea robusta.
The arabica variety is the oldest of the two varieties. It is believed to have originated in Ethiopia but, as its name suggests, it was first cultivated on the Arabian Peninsula. 78% of the world's coffee production is of the Arabica variety. It thrives better at high altitudes, has a very refined taste compared to other types of coffee and contains 1% caffeine. The arabica variety nowadays is produced mainly in Central and South American countries and is known for the intense aromatic flavour it gives to coffee. From high quality arabica variety are prepared the various types of light coffees (mild coffees).
The robusta variety is more resistant to plant diseases than arabica, due to having almost twice as much caffeine, since caffeine can paralyze and kill some of the insects that threaten the coffee tree. As its name says, it is a "robust" species with high production per plant. It thrives at lower altitudes and has a more harsh, hard taste. The robusta variety, which constitutes the remaining 22% of the world's production, has the potential to adapt to warm-humid climates, in which arabica does not thrive. Despite its more neutral taste than arabica, the robusta variety has increased popularity, particularly in the form of soluble coffee. Most currently traded coffee products are packaged blends in various combinations of the two varieties with different characteristics in order to satisfy the desired taste and aroma from the consumer public.
THE 10 MOST EXPENSIVE COFFEE BLENDS IN THE WORLD
1/ Black Ivory Coffee - Price: $1,000+ per pound
2/ Finca El Injerto - Price: $500+ per pound
3/ Hacienda La Esmeralda - Price: $350 per pound
4/ Kopi Luwak - Price: $160 per pound
5/ St. Helena - Price: $79 per pound
6/ Molokai - Price: $51 per pound
7/ Jamaican Blue – Price: $50 per pound
8/ Fazenda Santa Ines - Price: $50 per pound
9/ Los Planes – Price: $40 per pound
10/ Hawaiian Kona - Price: $35 per pound
From Insider magazine (May )
