Coffee leaves

The shiny, waxed leaves on the side of the main stem of the coffee plant are typically green. For some species or varieties, the young leaves can be bronzed-tipped and are green or dark-green when aging but never brown, except when they are stressed or when they fall down. The leaves of C. arabica and C. canephora experience a life time of 8 months and 7–10 month, respectively, until they reach a length of up to 15 cm.

Coffee leaves contain many different phytochemicals, including alkaloid, flavonoids, terpenoids, amino acids, sucrose, tannins, xanthonoids (mangiferin and isomangiferin), phenolic acids, and catechins.

The range of concentrations of chlorogenic acids in young leaves (35.7–80.8 mg/g of dry matter) were found to be comparable to the one reported for green coffee beans.

Coffee leaves have been found to contain an amount of mangiferin comparable to Mangifera indica leaves. Recently, the accumulation of mangiferin has been demonstrated in the leaves of several coffee species, suggesting that this maybe an excellent natural source of this xanthone.

The leaves of the coffee plants have been used for a long time to prepare tea-like drinks. Especially in West Sumatra, Ethiopia, Jamaica, India, Java, and South Sudan, the infusion is consumed as a traditional food. it has been reported that under an optimum condition for brewing, the coffee leaves tea, particularly from old leaves produces a tea-like taste and color with a subtle coffee aroma with superiority in total phenolic content.

The beverage is believed to help on the treatment of several disorders, for instance anemia, intestinal pain, and fever.

Before preparing the drink, there are different production methods to obtain coffee leaf tea. Most of them include leaf steaming, rolling, and drying.
Coffee leaves