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Understanding Coffee Varieties: Arabica and Beyond

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Let's科普一下 (Let's explain), nowadays, many coffee merchants have embarked on new journeys with their coffee beverages, and many use Arabica as their brand promotional material, all claiming they use "100% Arabica." When doing promotion, they even say: Freshly ground black coffee is 100% Arabica!

Dear, Arabica coffee is a coffee bean variety, not a type of coffee.

Coffee Varieties

The three major native coffee varieties are Arabica, Robusta, and Liberica. Arabica ranks first in production, accounting for about 60-70% of the world's coffee total. It has sub-varieties such as Bourbon and Typica. Robusta accounts for about 30-40% of the world's coffee total production. Liberica only accounts for 3% of the total, mostly cultivated in the Asia-Pacific region.

Liberica coffee bean variety, also known as large-seeded coffee beans, has extremely strong vitality, but simultaneously weak flavor and leaf rust resistance, with cultivation volume less than 1%, having basically withdrawn from the commercial market, only preserved in scientific research. Therefore, today our focus will be on Arabica and Robusta.

Arabica Coffee Bean Variety

Also known as small-seeded coffee beans, originally from Ethiopia. Arabica coffee trees mostly grow at altitudes between 1000-2000 meters; they are relatively cold-resistant, suitable for growing temperatures of 15-24℃; require higher humidity, with annual rainfall not less than 1500 milliliters, while also having higher requirements for cultivation techniques. Arabica coffee trees belong to larger shrubs, with leaves呈现椭圆形 (showing elliptical shape), deep green color, and fruits are also elliptical, generally containing two slightly flattened beans, with the front showing long elliptical shape, narrow and curved center cracks in S-shape, and the back of the bean showing relatively flat arc shape. Caffeine content is approximately 0.8%-1.5%.

The excellent flavor and aroma of Arabica coffee bean varieties make it the only coffee among these native varieties that can be directly and individually consumed. Single-origin coffees like Jamaica Blue Mountain, Indonesia Mandheling, as well as Yirgacheffe and Brazilian coffee all belong to this category. However, its resistance to dryness, frost damage, pests and diseases is weak, especially不耐咖啡最大的天敌——叶锈病 (not tolerant to coffee's greatest enemy - leaf rust disease), thus producing countries are all committed to improving varieties.

Arabica coffee produced in different regions, different altitudes, and different climates has its own characteristics, showing completely different personality flavors. When unroasted, it smells like fresh grass fragrance. After appropriate roasting, it exhibits "fruit aroma" (light to medium roast) and "caramel flavor" (dark roast), suitable for single-origin and various blended beans, and can be made using various extraction techniques.

Robusta Coffee Bean Variety

Also known as medium-seeded coffee beans, originally from Congo, Africa. Robusta coffee trees are mostly planted in lowlands at altitudes of 200-800 meters, preferring warm climates, requiring temperatures between 24-29℃, with not high requirements for rainfall. However, this variety relies on insects or wind for pollination, so coffee takes 9-11 months from pollination to fruiting, relatively longer than Arabica.

Robusta coffee trees are a tree species between shrubs and tall trees, with longer leaves, bright green color, trees can reach up to 10 meters high, but the roots are very shallow. The fruit shape is fuller than Arabica beans, with the center line cracking vertically, appearing flat or bulging in the middle from the side, feeling harder than Arabica beans, like small stones.

Robusta's Flavor Generally Inferior to Arabica

The Value of Robusta

As a very important variety in the coffee world, Robusta has made indelible contributions in the commercial world. Robusta's value is not to serve as a negative example to highlight how superior Arabica's flavor is, but it holds an unshakable position in espresso blends. Italian blends add small amounts of Robusta to increase coffee's body, producing Espresso with richer crema.

After Espresso blends with milk, it presents a rich and full-bodied taste. Milk coffee becomes more rich and mellow due to the complementary relationship between Robusta and Arabica. Robusta compensates for Arabica's body.

[Robusta]

Mainly used for espresso blends to increase body and obtain rich crema. Although Robusta's flavor cannot be compared with Arabica, it has its own value.

Beginner Questions:

1. What's the difference between 10 yuan and 30 yuan coffee?

From the coffee market perspective, coffee beans are mainly divided into two categories: commercial beans and specialty coffee beans. In terms of price, Robusta international futures are about $1,686 per ton, which calculates to about 11.5 RMB per kilogram at today's exchange rate. Specialty coffee beans are several times more expensive than commercial beans. From a cost perspective, choosing commercial beans certainly has larger profit margins, but the coffee flavor from commercial beans is much inferior to specialty coffee beans, and can be used for making lattes, cappuccinos and other Italian-style coffees.

Between commercial coffee and specialty coffee, 10 yuan and 30 yuan indeed mean a quality gap. Simply put, specialty coffee beans are high-quality raw beans, roasted through exquisite roasting techniques, restoring the unique flavor inherent in coffee beans - a flavor that belongs only to this type of coffee bean. Specialty coffee beans use refined processing methods. Careful washing and sun-drying, various refined raw bean processing techniques give coffee "layered," "fruity acidic," "sweet," and "mellow" flavors.

Specialty coffee beans are several times more expensive than commercial beans. From a cost perspective, choosing commercial beans certainly has larger profit margins. Large-scale batch production and packaging generally indicates commercial beans.

From individual bean flavor perspective, commercial beans are generally chosen for blending. These commercial coffee beans are usually cheaper in price, and both the raw coffee beans and roasting techniques can only be said to follow mass production standards. The biggest difference between specialty coffee and commercial coffee beans lies in quality and price. Specialty coffee beans might cost 90 yuan per pound, while commercial beans might reach as low as 40-50 yuan per pound.

However, in reality, blended beans can also produce very tasty coffee - it mainly depends on what beans are used in the blend.

2. "Blue Mountain Coffee," "Kopi Luwak" are coffees, Arabica is a coffee bean variety

Most people have heard of "Blue Mountain Coffee," "Kopi Luwak" - these are coffee beverages.

While "Arabica" coffee refers to the variety of coffee.

◆ "Blue Mountain Coffee" refers to coffee brewed from coffee beans produced in Jamaica's Blue Mountains.

◆ "Kopi Luwak" is because an animal called the civet cat, after eating coffee cherries, excretes the coffee beans unchanged from its body. People extract the coffee beans from its feces and process them.

Therefore, the "Arabica" we often see today is actually classified based on coffee bean varieties as the standard.

Coffee bean varieties can be mainly divided into three types: Arabica, Robusta, and Liberica. Arabica variety is further divided into Typica, Bourbon, Caturra, etc.

In fact, not all coffee made from Arabica coffee beans is specialty coffee. Unfortunately, many people don't understand this point, and many brands take advantage of this, using "100% Arabica coffee beans" as a gimmick to make consumers think their coffee is excellent.

When ordering single-origin coffee in "relatively professional" coffee shops, you almost never see promotions like "Arabica coffee beans." For example, at FrontStreet Coffee, you'll see words like "Kenya," "Colombia," "Yirgacheffe." Tasting "single-origin coffee" allows you to understand the characteristics and flavors of coffee from a specific country or region.

Important Notice :

前街咖啡 FrontStreet Coffee has moved to new addredd:

FrontStreet Coffee Address: 315,Donghua East Road,GuangZhou

Tel:020 38364473