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Article: coffee
- Article from:
- The Columbia Encyclopedia, Sixth Edition
CopyrightThe Columbia Encyclopedia, Sixth Edition. Copyright 2008 Columbia University Press. (Hide copyright information)
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coffee a tree, its seeds, and the beverage made from them. The coffee tree, a small evergreen of the genus
Coffea,
has smooth, ovate leaves and clusters of fragrant white flowers that mature into deep red fruits about 1/2 in. (1.27 cm) long. The fruit usually contains two seeds, the coffee beans.
C. arabica
yields the highest-quality beans and provides the bulk of the world's coffee, including c.80% of the coffee imported into the United States. The species is thought to be native to Ethiopia, where it was known before AD 1000.
Coffee's earliest human use may have been as a food; a ball of the crushed fruit molded with fat was a day's ration for certain African nomads. Later, ...
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