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Arabica vs. Robusta

 For coffee Beans - There are two commercially important coffee species: coffee arabica and coffee robusta (canephora ).

Arabica coffee (about 75% of world production) grows best at high altitudes, has a much more refined flavor than other species, and contains about 1% caffeine by weight.

Robusta coffee, as the name indicates, is a robust species, resistant to disease, with a high yield per plant. It flourishes at lower elevations and produces coffee with harsher flavor characteristics.

Coffea Arabica

a valuable species, has been grown and selected for several centuries, and represents three-quarters of world coffee production. As the name suggests, it comes from Arabia, and thrives in land rich in minerals. Its better-known sub-varieties are the Moka, Maragogipe, San Ramon, Columnaris, and Bourbon. The Arabica coffees produced in Brazil take the collective name of Brazilian Coffees; those from Colombia, Venezuela, Peru, Guatemala, Salvador, Haiti and Santo Domingo are called Milds. There are also Arabica coffees that come from Africa. The Arabica makes a flavoury full-bodied coffee, sharp in taste, with a rather low caffeine content. There are, however, different tastes, due to the different crop varieties. And there are so many varieties on the market that one can assert that some low-quality Arabica species are actually inferior to the best qualities of Coffea Robusta. Arabica beans look slightly elongated, with greenish-blue shades.

Coffea Robusta

is a variety that can be over 12 metres high. It grows quickly in altitudes up to 600 metres, and is more resistant to parasites. Discovered in the Congo in 1898, this hardy species is widely spread, especially in Africa, Asia and Indonesia, where the climate is unsuitable for Coffea Arabica. It represents about one quarter of total world production. Because of their higher content of caffeine (about twice as much as Arabica) and strong character, Robustas are used mostly in specialty blends. Overuse and/or improper processing can result in cheap- and bitter-tasting coffee, with pronounced "woodiness", a typical characteristic of natural Robustas from Africa. Washed varieties from Indonesia are rare and particularly prized for use in certain blends. Its beans are typically small, rounded and brownish-yellow in appearance.

Growth of Coffee

Like many other fruits, coffee cherries grow on trees.

                                                               Flowers from a coffee plant

Look at the interesting facts about coffee trees:

Ø      Coffee trees are indigenous to Ethiopia and the Arabian Peninsula. They were transplanted to other parts of the world by Dutch merchants and other explorers.

Ø      Some coffee trees have the potential to grow to a height of 30 to 40 feet. However, most are kept much shorter for ease of harvest.

Ø      The average coffee tree bears enough cherries each season to produce between 1 and 1½ pounds of roasted coffee.

Ø      The soil, climate, altitude, and surrounding plants that a coffee tree is exposed to during growth affect the flavor of the beans it produces.

A botanical outline

Linnaeus classified the coffee plant in the Rubiacee family, to which belongs also, for example, the gardenia. The name given to it by the great naturalist was "Coffea". There are some sixty species of it growing spontaneously in the subtropical areas of Africa, Indonesia, Malaysia, and Madagascar, that are without any commercial importance.

Only about ten species are cultivated in different parts of the world.

While the wild plant can reach even ten-twelve metres in height, the plantation one reaches a height varying between three and five metres, except in Colombia where it rarely exceeds two metres. This makes the harvest and flowering easier, and cultivation more economical.

The leaves are, depending on the growth stage, deep green, light green and bronze yellow. Flowers are white, in clusters, and sweet-scented like the Spanish jasmine. Flowers soon give way to a red berry, more or less dark, depending on the plant variety.

At first sight, the fruit is like a big cherry both in size and in colour. The berry is coated with a thin film (epicarp or esocarpo) containing a sugary mucilaginous flesh (mesocarp). Inside the pulp there are the seeds in the form of two beans coupled at their flat surface. Beans are in turn coated with a kind of parchment, very resistant, and golden yellow (called endocarp or pergamino).

When peeled, the real bean appears, coated -in its turn- with another very thin silvery film.

The bean is bluish green verging on bronze, depending on the species, and is at the most 11 millimeters long and 8 millimeters wide. For each species there are several varieties, each one distinguished by its own size, colour and resistance to disease.