What are the characteristics and flavor profile of Arabica coffee beans? What's the difference between Arabica and Robusta coffee beans and which tastes better?

Coffee advertisements often emphasize that they use 100% Arabica coffee. Indeed, judging by price alone, Arabica is indeed more premium, with Arabica coffee beans generally costing twice as much as Robusta beans. So how do the sub-varieties of Arabica compare? FrontStreet Coffee is here today to discuss Arabica coffee.

Arabica Coffee

Arabica coffee refers to the Arabica coffee species, accounting for about 70% to 80% of the world's coffee production, mostly grown on volcanic slopes or plateaus at altitudes of 500 to 1,500 meters or higher. The beans are oval-shaped, relatively slender and flat, with balanced acidity and bitterness, and gentle aroma. Currently, Brazil is the largest producer of Arabica, while Colombia exclusively produces Arabica coffee.

Arabica has low caffeine content, approximately 0.9% to 1.2%; its fat content is 60% higher than Robusta coffee; and its sugar content is twice as high. Therefore, Arabica tastes sweeter, smoother, with a slight fruit-like acidity. Moreover, Arabica's chlorogenic acid content is lower, about 5.5% to 8%. Besides being an antioxidant, chlorogenic acid is also an important component for resisting pests, making Arabica more susceptible to pest diseases and climate influences. It's generally grown at higher altitudes, produces fewer fruits, and matures more slowly.

Today, Arabica beans account for 70% of the world's coffee production, and Arabica beans are widely recognized as having better flavor. So what exactly do Arabica beans look like?

A quick online search will reveal the distinguishing characteristics between Arabica, Robusta, and Liberica beans. Among these, Arabica is described as having oval-shaped beans that are relatively slender, flat, with an S-shaped center line.

Typical Arabica fruits contain two coffee beans, which is why one side of Arabica coffee beans is flat. Of course, there are exceptions, such as some coffee fruits that contain only one bean. These beans appear round and full, somewhat resembling the appearance of Robusta beans. These are called peaberries and are generally smaller than flat beans. If regular flat beans are 17-18 screen size, peaberries are approximately 14-15 screen size.

Do you think FrontStreet Coffee's introduction is complete here? Actually, we're just getting started. You should know that Arabica is a major variety classification, with many subdivided coffee varieties under it, such as Typica, Bourbon, Geisha, etc., each with subtle differences in bean appearance.

Typica Coffee

As the oldest coffee variety, Typica's physical characteristics are often used as the model features for the Arabica species, known as Arabigo or criollo in Central America. It's the variety closest to the original species, with oval-shaped beans that are relatively slender, flat, with an S-shaped center line, resembling elongated eggs. FrontStreet Coffee has noticed that many textbook illustrations use images from Typica. It has clean lemon acidity, sweet aftertaste, low resistance to leaf rust disease, making cultivation difficult, low tree yield, plus a long harvest period (harvesting once every 2 years), resulting in low production.

Of course, sometimes special processing methods can also change the appearance of coffee beans. For example, the wet-hulling processing method frequently used in Indonesia. Its biggest characteristic is removing the parchment during the washing process before drying. Using machines to hull the parchment easily subjects the beans to machine pressure, causing them to crack and take on a cloven hoof shape.

Elephant Bean/Pacamara Coffee

Elephant Bean (Maragogype) is a natural mutation of Typica, named for its enormous size. Its beans are long and square-shaped, flat, with large size being its main characteristic. Regular Typica beans are about 17-18 screen size, while Elephant Beans can mostly reach 20 screen size or larger. It can be considered a giant version of Typica.

Pacamara is an artificial hybrid of Pacas and Maragogype, inheriting Pacas' high productivity and adaptability, and Maragogype's size and excellent acidity. Normal Pacamara can maintain about 70% of Maragogype's size.

Bourbon Series Coffee

Bourbon is a natural mutation of Typica, and the biggest change in its coffee beans is from the original elongated shape to a round shape, which we often call round Bourbon. The particle size is similar to Typica.

Some coffee experts believe Bourbon is merely a natural mutation of Typica and nothing special! But that's not the case. Bourbon has its own characteristics, with quality flavor similar to Typica, like red wine acidity and sweet aftertaste. Typica and Bourbon can be distinguished by coffee tree leaves and bean appearance. Bourbon leaves are broader, the coffee cherries are smaller but grow more densely, so the beans are relatively smaller and rounder compared to Typica.

Its direct single-gene mutation varieties, such as Yellow Bourbon, Pink Bourbon, Caturra, Pacas, and Villalobos, all inherit the appearance characteristics of Bourbon coffee beans (some Caturra, Pacas, and Villalobos, after multiple artificial breeding, may show slightly elongated bean appearance). The biggest difference in plant characteristics from Bourbon is that these three varieties have become smaller in size and can grow well under direct sunlight without needing shade trees, hence also called sun-grown coffee.

One mutation of Bourbon has shorter plants, with beans also different from traditional Bourbon, showing a pointed, elongated shape. Its caffeine content is only half that of regular Arabica coffee, known as Pointed Bourbon or natural low-caffeine coffee.

Geisha Coffee

The Geisha variety was discovered in 1931 from the Geisha forest in Ethiopia. Later, Geisha was sent to coffee research institutes in Kenya, introduced to Uganda and Tanzania in 1936, to Costa Rica in 1953, and to Panama in 1970. Initially, not many people paid attention to Geisha, until Panama's Hacienda La Esmeralda separated it from other varieties in 2003, and it became the BOP competition champion in 2004. Only then did the Geisha variety officially come into everyone's view.

The appearance characteristics of Geisha coffee need to be described in two parts. First is the American Geisha, represented by Panama's Hacienda La Esmeralda. Second is the African Geisha, represented by Ethiopia's Gesha Village Estate.

Hacienda La Esmeralda is famous for Geisha, and its Geisha coffee's most prominent appearance feature is slender shape, pointed at both ends, full and plump in the middle. Some high-quality Geisha can even reach Pacamara-like size (18-19 screen size), with very distinctive identification features. As of now, FrontStreet Coffee believes that if you're tasting Geisha variety for the first time, we recommend starting from its debut stage - Panama's Boquete region, such as FrontStreet Coffee's FrontStreet Coffee Panama Boquete Washed Geisha. The reason is simple: since this region nurtured the renowned Geisha and birthed many excellent estates with outstanding reputations, it naturally has excellent terroir and climate, so the produced Geisha is naturally the most representative in flavor.

Meanwhile, the Geisha coffee varieties from Gesha Village Estate include Gorie Geisha (sourced from the Gorie Geisha forest) and Geisha 1931 (selected from diverse forest populations similar to Panama Geisha). Their appearance shows elongated beans, smaller compared to Panama Geisha, with less distinctive features.

Geisha coffee's flavor is also very delicious. Taking FrontStreet Coffee's FrontStreet Coffee Panama Hacienda La Esmeralda Blue Label as an example, this variety is highly recognizable as washed Geisha. The dry aroma has light floral notes, while the wet aroma after brewing shows clear fruit and floral aromas. The taste has distinct citrus acidity, medium tea-like body, reminiscent of a cup of jasmine tea.

Important Notice :

前街咖啡 FrontStreet Coffee has moved to new addredd:

FrontStreet Coffee Address: 315,Donghua East Road,GuangZhou

Tel:020 38364473