Coffee leaf tea

Coffee leaf tea bears some similarities to green tea, but it is more earthy and sweeter. It is lower in caffeine than green tea, and its high levels of antioxidant. The use of coffee leaves to make tea has long been a tradition in West Sumatera, Ethiopia, Jamaica, India, Java, and South Sudan.

The taste and aroma are pleasant, as “the resultant amber-colored liquor has a delicately caramelized, and smoky flavor. The tea has a nutty taste rather than the more grassy one of many greens. Technically, it is not a true tea since it does not come from the camellia sinsensis plant.

Coffee leaf tea has extremely high levels of mangiferin, a compound often found in (and named after) mangoes. Mangiferin is thought to be an anti-inflammatory agent, as well as a protector against diabetes. Mangiferin has been widely researched; it is an antioxidant polythenol, as is EGCG, the “magic molecule” that is the primary health facilitator of green tea.

Other secondary metabolites such as caffeoylquinic acid, caffeine, hydroxycinnamic acid, allantoic acid, allantoin, theobromine, and theophylline also have been found in leaves of some species of coffee.

To make coffee leaf tea, simple “dried leaves that are roasted on a flat pan until they acquire a dark, tarry texture, then crumbled and brewed over low heat with water, sugar, and a pinch of salt. Cooking time is about 10 minutes.
Coffee leaf tea

Coffee plants

Coffea species are shrubs or small trees native to tropical and southern Africa and tropical Asia. Coffee plants were discovered in Africa and eventually disseminated to countries throughout the world. Despite this diversity, only two species are actually of great importance in the world market, C. arabica L. and C. canephora Pierre.

All coffee species are woody evergreens, but the plants range in size from small shrubs to trees more than 10 meters tall. All coffee trees consist of an upright main shoot (trunk) with primary, secondary and tertiary lateral branches.

Leaves vary in color from yellowish to dark green, with touches of bronze or purple. coffee leaves are generally thin, shiny and waxed, elliptical in form and conspicuously veined. They typically grow in pairs that are opposite to each other on the branch.

A study of the effect of shade on the growth and production of coffee in Ethiopia showed that the shade stimulated changes in the physiology of coffee plants, including increasing photosynthesis and adding leaf area indexes.

Thus, the coffee plantations under shade have a larger and heavier coffee production compared to those without shade. Shade also increases the dry matter of coffee fields, which means it plays a role in storing carbon stocks.

The white flowers appear in small bunches at the nodes. After pollination, a fruit develops into a cherry about 3/8 to 5/8 inch (10 to 15mm) long containing two seeds (the coffee beans). Technically, the flowers form on the one-year-old wood that is only slightly hardened.

The fruit of the coffee plant is typically described as a drupe: a fleshy, indehiscent fruit with a pericarp that is clearly differentiated into an exocarp, mesocarp and endocarp.
Coffee plants

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