Millions of people around the world are members of the coffee club. The coffee we prepare every morning not only for its beneficial health effects, but also to finish waking up. This coffee often comes from distant countries such as Colombia, Ethiopia, Vietnam or Brazil. These are the main coffee producers, but soon we can talk more and more about European coffee and especially Spanish coffee.

This is because Spain is determined to become the coffee power of Europe. And Andalusia looks like the best choice to shape the European coffee industry.

Tradition. The history of coffee is very interesting and full of strange stories as well as the occasional myth and many legends. We have a wonderful coffee tradition in Spain, which I won’t get into on the roasting quality, dating back to the time when the Arabs settled on the peninsula and consumed a drink very similar to Turkish coffee. However, it seems that the decisive factors in the arrival of coffee to the country were King Philip V of Spain and members of the Bourbon Dynasty.

spanish coffee. This coffee comes from distant countries with the best conditions for its cultivation, but the truth is that coffee cultivation in Spain is nothing new. We have spent years researching and developing the Robusta variety of coffee trees on the peninsula, while also trying to grow the most popular Arabica variety. So far these have been experiments to see how much the plants can tolerate, the conditions and what coffee can be obtained.

But Spain already has a sustainable coffee plantation called Agaete. It is a very special variety that grows in Gran Canaria and is unique in Europe, but the idea of ​​other farmers is to be able to take the fields to another level within the peninsula, similar to what we have achieved with avocados. mango or papaya (despite much controversy due to water usage).

kamikaze. With this in mind, we should focus on Andalusia. At Cortijo Chaves in Almuñécar, Manolo Mateos grows… everything. Mango, avocado, cherimoya, papaya, Buddha’s hand and even lychee. Among this exotic variety, farmers are trying their luck with coffee trees. The inspiration for growing coffee in Andalusia came precisely from Agaete. In his article in Ideal magazine, Manolo describes seeing a plantation in the Canary Islands and being encouraged to visit it.

“The climate is similar and I’m a bit of a geek, so I wanted to see what would happen. Maybe I’m a kamikaze, but decades ago there were no subtropical plantations here either. We have a very unique climate, we’re protected by Mountains, the sea is just a kilometer from here and acts as a temperature regulator. Also “The humidity and vegetation of the Jate River also make the land very fertile,” he comments. Conditions seem to be most suitable for coffee cultivation if the average temperature is good.

sexy coffee. In 2022, Manolo has already tried his luck. He planted 120 coffee trees, but the harvest did not materialize. His mistake was that he did not protect the cherries from moisture after picking them and therefore they spoiled. Last year, he returned to the fray with the lesson learned and with new tricks already used in the main producing countries, such as the need to constantly monitor plants or the ripening of fruits not occurring simultaneously.

Their idea is to expand these 120 coffee trees to one hectare, which is already in progress. “It may not be the best in the world, but it’s the best in Europe. The idea is that it has a unique taste and people like it and adopt it as their own product,” Manuel Mateo said. He comments.

Watch out for Italy. There are several well-positioned Spanish regions that could become centers of coffee production in Europe in the future. The Agaerte and Almuñécar plantations are joined by other experimental plantations in Malaga, but we must not overlook Italy in this particular competition to see who can mass produce the first European coffee. The country has another tremendous coffee tradition, which, as in Spain, has nothing to do with production, but roasting and, above all, the preparation of desserts and drinks.

And, like in Spain, there are those who have been committed to producing coffee on a commercial level for decades. In this case, we need to look at Sicily, where the island’s unique conditions and the effects of climate change have enabled coffee trees that died from frost 100 years ago to flourish in areas where there is no longer human control. .

Pictures | Takeaway, Noyolcont

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