Arabica

African Highlands

The town of Arabica was founded during an age when the concept of time was still a primitive understanding. Yet, within the realm of those primordial minds, a secret ritual has endured the rust of numerous millenia and is just as strong today as it was during its unexpected inception.

Deep within the African highlands, Arabica dwells in a thriving ecosystem disconnected from the eyes, ears and destructive tendencies of the outside world. Oral traditions have described the sacred town as being majestic beyond comprehension as well as being the birthplace of the planet’s first coffee bean tree. The great Mother Arabica Tree.

Although naturally camouflaged, defended and hidden by geographical barriers, a few rebellious Arabican citizens over the long years have ventured beyond the veil of the dense African valley and shared the delicious beans from the great Mother Tree with the rest of the world. Unfortunately, all who make the mistake of venturing out of the valley, are never able to find their way back.

As news of the sweet beans spread like wildfire across the seven continents, the quickly addicted people of the world rapidly depleted the original supply and naturally desired more beans. In time, cloned coffee groves and farms began popping up in every corner of the world, fueling and energizing the evolution of highly-caffeinated human beings. Except there was one flaw. The cloned and regrown coffee beans grew sour and were extremely bitter - causing the consumers to add creamers and tablespoons of sugar. The anxiety created by the imperfections and the craving for the original beans sparked countless expeditions into Africa with the hopes of discovering the Mother Tree and her sweetly incomparable coffee pods. Fortunately for Arabica, none of the external expeditions were ever successful.

Time, along with the increased cloning of the original coffee beans and the countless new groves and plantations - which have spoiled the great Mother Tree’s roots with sour and infestive oxygen particles - caused the great Mother Tree to fall dormant for eleven months out of the year. The desolating environmental collapse stretched the great people of Arabica’s coffee bean supply to the brink making them completely dependent on their yearly ritual to renew their caches. If the town was unable to produce coffee beans, their purpose on the planet would fall into chaos and their way of life would be jeopardized and face the black abyss of extinction. They were the guardian’s of the Great Mother Arabica Tree, the only and last pure Arabica tree on the planet. Losing her was not an option.

Desperate yet never hopeless, the intuitive citizens of Arabica discovered a way, a vitality ceremony of sorts, to awaken the Great Mother Arabica Tree’s roots and revive her sweet blooms by using the extended hours of sunlight during the annual solstice.

For seven days each year during the month of June the energized citizens of Arabica halt all daily tasks and responsibilities and begin their week-long archaic ritual which ends on the longest day of the year.

With the assistance of Arabica’s native species of red Golden retriever, the townsfolk along with the dogs kick off the week-long ritual by excavating hundreds of two foot deep and equally wide holes and trenches around the base of the one-hundred foot tall Mother Tree. Once the holes are dug out and the umber roots are exposed, the citizens make a one-day-long trek to a secret inlet in the heart of the valley where the blue Nile river converges with the magical jade waters from lake Tano. An inlet which only reveals its location during the increased heat of the week prior to the solstice. The citizens gather the mystical and highly mineral water in large clay decanters then make the day-long journey back into town and fill the dry holes until the roots are nearly submerged. On the fourth day, once the roots are softened and moist, a special blend of caffeinated fertilizer mixed with gold flakes, opal grinds and sea and epsom salts are poured into the holes to act as an adrenaline booster. They continue this unique practice of fertilization for the next two days until the arrival of the thirteen hour summer solstice. On that day, the extended light from the sun penetrates the loose soil, energizes the celestial water, jumpstarts photosynthesis and shocks life back into the dormant roots.

Due to the extremely high mineral content in the water, combined with the rare African salts, and precious gemstones, the penetrating sunlight is ravenously absorbed by the starved roots - miraculously pushing new growth throughout the entire tree. Browned dead branches stir with life and transition into swaying tendrils of vibrant green leaves and fleshy bark skin riddled with thousands of red, pink, orange and yellow coffee cherries.

As the sun finally begins its descent into space and shadows crash upon the Mother Tree’s luscious canopy, the citizens of Arabica start their twenty-four hour long harvest.

The same decanters used to gather and transport the jade water are used to collect the thousands of coffee cherries which are all handpicked. The younger, more nimble and fearless citizens climb up the tree and retrieve the high perched fruits. No one stops harvesting until the entire tree is picked clean. Since they can only harvest once every year, they cannot afford to leave behind a single coffee pod.

Just as fast as the pulsing sun gives the tree life, the final retreat of the light and the introduction of the cold moonlight transmutes the tree back into its dormant state of hibernation. The leaves crinkle and fall to the damp earth. The moist bark crumples into flakes and drips away from the corroding branches. The great Mother Arabica Tree is striped bare, but she is no less beautiful.

After plucking the nearly luminescent coffee beans from the cherry pods, the citizens dump them into their one-of-a-kind rotating steel drums and they each take turns rotating it over a large brazier as their last and final act in the solstice ritual. Once the beans have all darkened into a rich pecan, they are laid across a white cloth atop a massive stone altar and are left there to be kissed by the sun and moon for the next three days. Then, the same jade water from the sacred inlet is used to wash the beans five times, coating them with their celestial minerals and rich sediment. Fully washed and dried to perfection the beans are collected from the barrels then stored in hundreds of underground cocoa infused barrels, where they ferment in the damp cool air until flawlessly ripe and ready for grinding.

For the remainder of the year the two thousand dark roasted citizens of Arabica steep themselves, body and soul, in the great Mother Tree’s eternal elixir while the rest of the world continues to willingly ingest themselves with bitter, age accelerating substitutes. It is an everlasting cycle the people of Arabica have endured for countless generations and will continue to endure until the end of time. For they are the guardians of the great Mother Arabica Tree. The last and only tree of her kind on the planet. And they will patiently wait each year for the thirteen hour solstice to awaken her gracious roots and once again replenish Arabica’s sacred beans.

Plus, having access to the world’s greatest coffee is a pretty awesome perk of the job.