What's the Difference Between Arabica and Robusta? Why Are Geisha Coffee Beans So Expensive? How Many Trees Do You Need to Plant for Coffee Freedom?

Many of us have probably fantasized about living a quiet, self-sufficient life away from outside interference in a place surrounded by mountains and water. As coffee lovers, we would naturally want to grow our own coffee. This could actually be a path to achieving coffee freedom—growing your own coffee.

Because FrontStreet Coffee started growing coffee back in 2013, we often receive this question from our friends: How many coffee trees do you need to plant to achieve coffee freedom?

Excellent! So today, let's move away from extraction and brewing discussions. FrontStreet Coffee will analyze just how many coffee trees you need to plant to achieve coffee freedom!

How Many Coffee Trees Are Needed for Coffee Freedom?

To ensure our answer is reasonably precise, this article will use extensive statistical data! First, we need to calculate how many coffee beans are required to satisfy one year of coffee freedom. When our love for coffee runs so deep that we want to grow coffee trees for self-sufficiency, one cup naturally won't satisfy our daily caffeine needs. So, let's calculate based on two cups per day. Taking espresso as an example, one cup uses 20g of coffee beans, so two cups daily equals 40g. Multiply that by 365 days in a year, and we need 14,600g of coffee beans annually. However, there will inevitably be some waste, so calculating with minimal waste and rounding up, including waste, we need to consume 15,000g (15kg) of roasted coffee beans per year.

15kg is our annual requirement for coffee beans, so we need to use this number for our calculations. First, this 15kg refers to roasted beans. After green coffee beans are roasted into roasted beans, there's a weight loss of 15-20%, depending on the roast level. We typically use dark roast coffee beans for espresso, with about 20% weight loss. So let's calculate with 4kg, then add it to the original weight: 15kg + 4kg = 19kg, meaning we need 19kg of green beans.

Coffee beans come from coffee cherries. Only after coffee fruits are harvested and processed can we obtain green coffee beans suitable for roasting. During processing, the fruit's skin and pulp are removed, leaving only the beans, which are then dried to about 11% moisture content. Therefore, on average, every 4 kilograms of coffee cherries yields only 1 kilogram of green coffee beans. This means our coffee trees need to produce a total of 76 kilograms of cherries annually for us to achieve coffee freedom in one year!

Coffee Varieties and Their Yields

Currently, the main commercially valuable varieties are Arabica and Robusta. If you don't want to invest too much effort in cultivation, you could choose to grow Robusta! Although Robusta has inferior flavor, it's disease-resistant, easy to cultivate, and has high fruit yield, with an average yield of 3-5 kilograms per Robusta plant per harvest. Calculating with 4 kilograms, you would need to plant 19 trees. (Calculated based on one harvest per year) If you're pursuing flavor, then you need to choose Arabica varieties, which yield an average of 1.5-2.5kg per tree.

The Case of Gesha

Among Arabica varieties, Gesha is clearly the first choice when it comes to flavor. However, its yield is lower than other varieties, so let's calculate with an average yield of 1.5kg per tree. To achieve Gesha freedom in one year, you would need to plant at least about 51 Gesha coffee trees! But the reason Gesha is so expensive isn't just because of its outstanding flavor and low yield—it's also because it's delicate and difficult to cultivate! Therefore, we need to plant an additional 2-3 trees to ensure uninterrupted coffee supply throughout the year.

Conclusion

In summary, if we want to achieve coffee and Gesha freedom by growing coffee trees, we need to plant at least 50+ coffee trees. But planting isn't just about sowing coffee seeds and waiting for next year's harvest! As mentioned above, Arabica is very delicate, especially Gesha, so we not only need to find the right growing environment but also provide continuous care, which naturally requires significant investment. Additionally, coffee trees need to be cultivated for at least 3 years before they can bear fruit. If anything happens to the coffee plants during these three years, we'd have to start over! Even when they successfully bear fruit, we still need to process, roast, and handle the entire series of post-harvest processing! Well... if you can accept constantly repeating these tedious tasks, then growing your own coffee to achieve coffee freedom is indeed something worth trying.

Important Notice :

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FrontStreet Coffee Address: 315,Donghua East Road,GuangZhou

Tel:020 38364473