Brazil. The United States imports more coffee than any other nation. As of 2015, Americans consumed approximately 400 million cups of coffee per day, making the United States the leading consumer of coffee in the world. Coffee plants grow within a defined area between the Tropics of Cancer and Capricorn, termed the bean belt or coffee belt. Etymology The Oxford English Dictionary suggests that the European languages generally appear to have gotten the name from Turkish kahveh, about 1600, perhaps through Italian caffè. Arab qahwah, in Turkish pronounced kahveh, the name of the infusion or beverage; said by Arab lexicographers to have originally meant "wine" or some type of wine, and to be a derivative of a verb-root qahiya "to have no appetite". Another common theory is that the name derives from Kaffa Province, Ethiopia, where the species may have originated. Coffee plant The coffee tree averages from in height. As the tree gets older, it produces less fruit and slowly loses any pest- and disease-resistance. Coffee plants are often grown in rows metres/feet apart (depending on the desired density chosen by the farmer). Some farmers plant other trees, such as shade trees or other cash-crop trees, such as orange trees around them or plant the coffee on the sides of hills, because they need specific conditions to flourish. Ideally, Arabica coffee beans are grown at temperatures between and Robusta between and receive between of rainfall per year. More rain is needed at the beginning of the season when the fruit is developing and less later in the season as it ripens. Two lesser known species grown for consumption are Coffea liberica and Coffea racemosa. Processing When the fruit is ripe, it is almost always handpicked, using either "selective picking", where only the ripe fruit is removed, or "strip-picking", where all of the fruit is removed from a limb all at once. Selective picking is often used to produce higher quality coffee because the cherries are picked at their ripest. Strip-picking is indiscriminate and will harvest unripe, ripe, and over-ripe fruit. To improve quality after strip-picking, the harvest must be sorted. The Asian palm civet eats coffee berries and excretes the beans. Because the civet prefers the taste of the ripest cherries, the civet selectively harvests the cherries. Its digestive system then processes the beans by breaking down the mucilage and pulp surrounding the seed. Once the seeds are excreted