A prestigious product
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L'Unione del Porto:
experts in coffee
According to international trade in goods statistics, coffee is one of the most important goods. This import item comes mostly from South America, Africa, North and Central America, and Asia.
Transported by ship, the green beans make a long journey and go through several processing phases.
Specialised in coffee, the Cooperative offers a wide range of storage and processing services: shipping and customs, raw material quality control, storage, container unloading, stocking, processing and distribution.
What's more...
The origins of coffee
The origin of the coffee plant is lost in history to endless legends. Many stories have been passed down attributing its discovery to several different figures. An interesting story tells of a Yemeni goat herder who noticed his herd had become rowdy after eating some reddish berries. He told a monk the story who made an infusion with the berries. The resulting bitter drink gave the drinker energy. Another story tells of a fire in Ethiopia that turned the wood into a sort of natural roastery emitting a pleasant aroma. In the Islamic world, the Archangel Gabriel brought Mohamed a gift of a reinvigorating drink to help him pray. Its origins are thus lost in time. It is thought that the Holy Bible and some writings of the Greek poet Homer spoke of a dark drink with reinvigorating properties. Coffee reached Europe from Ethiopia in the 16th century thanks to some sacks of coffee that the Turks left behind when they withdrew from Vienna. It spread from Venice where it seems the first coffee store (for buying coffee) appeared around 1640. In any case, the first description of coffee is owed to the physician Prospero Albino in 1592, however the first coffee house (for drinking coffee) seems to have opened in Constantinople in 1554. Its use spread throughout the Islamic World. Perhaps the Venetian merchants brought it to Europe well before the battle of Vienna. When it was introduced in the West it experienced ups and downs. The Church accused it of being the Devil’s drink until Pope Clement the 8th decided to give his blessing. Since then, coffee has spread everywhere with millions of consumers in both Europe and America. Quite by accident, King Gustav III of Sweden managed to prove the innocence of the drink and that it could be drunk in great quantities without causing harm. At the time, Sweden was split into those endorsing tea and those endorsing coffee. The King decided to carry out an experiment with two twins who had been sentenced to death: the first would drink only coffee and the second only tea. The King and scientists did not live long enough to obtain the results since both the prisoners lived until they were more than 80 years old.
Coffee roasting
Coffee beans come from a perennial plant of the "rubiaceae" family, genus Coffea, which is formed of around 80 species. The 2 known as Arabica and Robusta are the most important species. Their fruits contain 2 beans which are extracted with two methods: dry processing through the sun's natural action, resulting in "natural" coffees, and "wet processing" that produces "washed" coffees or "milds". Robusta coffees are usually natural while Arabica coffees are milds, with the exception of those cultivated in Brazil, Cuba, Haiti, Ethiopia and India. Whether natural or milds, coffee must be toasted to reveal its aroma. Probably a chance discovery (they say that someone absent-mindedly left the green beans by the fire), toasting or roasting gives coffee its colour that ranges from brown to dark brown, almost black. This caramelises the sugars, burns the cellulose, and, above all, favours the forming of volatile compounds which create its unmistakeable aroma. The different degrees of toasting and blending of coffees of different origins is what gives it different flavours. The Arabica-based blends, for example, are much sweeter and more aromatic, while those containing a considerable percentage of Robusta have a more bitter, richer, stronger taste. Toasting occurs through a roasting machine whose cooking cycle of approximately 15 - 18 minutes at a temperature of 200 degrees reduces the coffee weight by around 20% (due mainly to the loss of water in the bean). After toasting comes the development phase which is extremely important for the coffee to acquire and enhance the sensory qualities that intensify the taste and aroma. This development period lasts around 24 - 48 hours. At this point, the coffee is ready to be packaged and forwarded to the market to give us what is now a typically Italian drink.