SCIENCE and NAMES: Arabica Coffee a Plant Combo, and Origin of "Java"

As a major coffee drinker, I've wondered how the Arabica Coffee plant came to be, and why coffee is sometimes called "Java." In today's blog you'll learn the answers to both questions!

(Photo:   Coffea arabica (Arabian Coffee) is an upright tropical evergreen shrub or small tree that grows up to 15 feet (4.5 m) tall. Credit:  World of Flowering Plants) 

 SCIENCE and NAMES: Arabica Coffee a Plant Combo, and Origin of "Java"

Livescience reported that the plants that provide most of the world's coffee supply emerged around 600,000 to 1 million years ago when two other species of coffee cross-pollinated in the forests of Ethiopia, scientists have discovered.

About 60% of the world's coffee supply is sourced from Coffea arabica plants, which now grow in tropical regions across the world New research, published April 15 in the journal Nature Genetics, has revealed when and where the original C. arabica plants likely developed.

ORIGINS:  TECHNICALLY AND BOTANICALLY SPEAKING 

Using population genomic modeling methods, researchers determined that C. arabica evolved as a result of natural hybridization between two other species of coffee: C. eugenioides and C. canephora. So now you know it was a hybrid of two plant species.

The C. Arabica coffee plant flourished as it was cultivated across the world. It was originally believed to have been grown by humans in Ethiopia and then traded to the Middle East, where it was a well-known beverage by the 15th century. According to one legend, an Indian Sufi Muslim pilgrim smuggled seven seeds out of Yemen and established coffee farms in Karnataka, India around 1670.

Dutch traders began cultivating the plant in other regions — they first planted C. arabica on the island of Java in 1699 and one was sent to a botanical garden in Amsterdam in 1706.

(Image: Island of Java. Java  is one of the Greater Sunda Islands in Indonesia. It is bordered by the Indian Ocean to the south and the Java Sea to the north. Credit: Wikipedia)

WHY IS COFFEE SOMETIMES CALLED "JAVA"? 

 “Java” Comes from the Island of Java. According to the website Driftaway Coffee, that's because during the 1600s, the Dutch introduced coffee to Southeast Asia. They brought coffee trees to places like Bali and Sumatra, where it’s still grown today. Another island they began planting coffee on was Java, and it’s from this island that the name “java” arose.

It’s not known specifically known how the term was first used. The Dutch were likely the first to use the name, and they may have used it to refer to single-origin coffee from Java. As the coffee trade grew, though, the term was adopted by more and more people throughout the world, and any specificity was lost. Today, “java” has become a generic term for coffee and no longer refers only to coffee from the Island of Java.