Which Arabica Coffee Bean Varieties Are Particularly Expensive_Which Coffee Brand Has the Best Arabica

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Understanding Arabica Coffee Bean Pricing

For those who frequently purchase coffee beans, you may have noticed the significant price differences between coffee beans from various growing regions. However, since they are all Arabica coffee bean varieties, why can the price difference reach thousands of yuan or more?

Factors Affecting Arabica Coffee Bean Prices

The factors that affect Arabica coffee bean prices can be categorized into two main variables:

Production Volume

Rarity determines value. Coffee beans with scarce production naturally command higher prices. For example, Kopi Luwak coffee beans.

Taste Quality

When it comes to whether coffee tastes good and whether its flavor has layers, this involves more complex aspects.

The American Specialty Coffee Association's definition of specialty coffee is: "Carefully select the most suitable varieties, cultivated in the altitude, climate, and soil environment that best helps coffee flavor development. Carefully select washed and natural processing methods, select the highest grade defect-free green beans with zero defects during transportation, delivered to customers. Through the superb craftsmanship of roasters, bring out the richest regional flavors, then use recognized extraction standards to brew delicious coffee." Simply put, variety, growing environment, post-harvest processing methods, roasting techniques, and brewing methods all affect the flavor of "a cup of coffee."

A Good Start is Half Success... Genetics Determines 70%

Coffee beans circulating in the market come from two main varieties: Arabica and Robusta.

Arabica has elegant flavor and is the mainstay of specialty coffee, also the focus of this article. Robusta, also known as robusta beans, has rough flavor and caffeine content more than twice that of Arabica, and does not belong to specialty coffee varieties. Robusta beans are not the focus of this article, so we'll briefly mention them!

Ancient Arabica native species can be divided into two major types: Typica from Ethiopia and Bourbon from Yemen.

Typica

The oldest native species from Ethiopia, all Arabica varieties derive directly or indirectly from it. Elegant flavor, but weak constitution, susceptible to leaf rust disease, low yield, not economically viable. Bean grains are thin and pointed. Simply the Lin Daiyu of the coffee world!

Bourbon

Ranked alongside Typica as ancient excellent varieties. Can be divided into "round Bourbon" and "pointed Bourbon." Round Bourbon has vigorous vitality, unlike the sickly Typica, round Bourbon has better resistance to leaf rust than Typica, and flavor is not inferior to Typica. The disadvantage is that coffee trees need to rest for a year after fruiting. (Indeed, conserving energy is essential)

But actually, Arabica can be subdivided into many subspecies. Just like humans have different races - yellow, white, black, and brown. Differences exist between different subspecies. For example, white people are on average taller than yellow people, while black people have explosive athletic power superior to other races. Therefore, different Arabica subspecies have varying characteristics - some have high production capacity, some have good disease resistance, and some have larger bean sizes than others. Here are three examples:

Geisha

Originating from Gesha Mountain in Ethiopia, belonging to the Typica family. Has won multiple international famous coffee bean cupping championships. In the 2017 Best of Panama (BOP) auction, the washed Geisha champion "Sophia" was purchased by Japanese company SAZA Coffee at an astonishing price of $254.8 per pound (approximately 3964 RMB/kg).

Caturra

A genetic variant of Bourbon, with better production capacity and disease resistance than Bourbon. Most importantly, it has super strong adaptability, doesn't require shade trees, commonly known as Sun Coffee.

Maragogype

Maragogype is a variant of Typica, with bean sizes at least three times larger than regular Arabica beans, making it the world's largest, hence its name.

Supplement 1: In plant taxonomy, coffee belongs to the Coffea genus of the Rubiaceae family. Currently, hundreds of coffee varieties are known, with Arabica and Robusta being the most famous.

Supplement 2: Coffee beans are actually the seeds from coffee tree fruits (coffee cherries). The seeds inside the fruit are what we call coffee beans.

Why Did Mencius's Mother Move Three Times? Environment Cannot Be Underestimated

Coffee chemist Dr. Illy once proposed a profound insight: "The characteristics and flavor potential of coffee beans are 70% determined by genetics, while the remaining 30% depends on the ecosystem of the growing region. Different genetics nurture coffee with different characteristics - this is the main reason why Arabica and Robusta have obviously different flavors. If genetic characteristics are the same, then the overall ecosystem, including latitude, altitude, soil, sunlight, rainfall, and temperature, will dominate the direction and quality of coffee flavor." This also explains why different coffee estates each have different ecosystems, soil quality, and microclimates, which is the main reason for coffee's "regional flavor."

Without Experiencing Bone-Chilling Cold, How Can One Savor Fruit Acidity on Tongue and Throat

In areas with the same latitude, coffee beans grown at higher altitudes contain higher levels of aromatic compounds and sucrose, making the coffee more aromatic and mellow. This is because higher altitudes have lower temperatures and large day-night temperature differences, which can slow coffee growth and accumulate more nutrients.

Others Use One White Feature to Cover Three Flaws, We Use One White to Enhance Three Flavors

When shade trees are present, they can prevent coffee trees from growing in high-temperature environments, which prevents metabolism from increasing, allowing ample time to develop aromatic substances, increasing sweetness, fruity acidity, and body.

To Do a Good Job, One Must First Sharpen One's Tools

Only with sufficient nutrient supply can high-quality coffee with good body and fruity acidity be cultivated. Coffee grown in volcanic soil has the most balanced and diverse flavors of acidity, aroma, sweetness, body, and bitterness. Research has found that volcanic rocks contain high concentrations of sulfur and sulfides, which happen to be essential components for synthesizing aromatic substances, so coffee grown in volcanic areas usually has richer aroma.

In addition to volcanic rocks, some studies have also found that coffee from high-humidity growing regions tends to develop strong fruity characteristics. This is because high humidity is believed to increase the malic acid concentration in coffee pulp, which is then absorbed by the coffee beans.

Supplement 3: The growing environment for Arabica generally requires an average temperature of about 20°C, annual rainfall between 1000-2000mm, and not too much temperature variation throughout the year. Globally, the regions that can provide such climate conditions are the ring-shaped area centered on the equator, extending from 25 degrees north latitude to 25 degrees south latitude - what we commonly call the "coffee belt."

From Harvest to Processing

When you have good beans and found a good location with favorable conditions, you plant them. Days pass, and fruiting begins.

The initially green fruits gradually turn yellow, then red. The best flavor comes from vermilion to mahogany-colored "coffee cherries" - this is the moment of maturity. This color represents the peak of ripeness. If possible, only harvest this type of fruit.

The freshly picked vibrant red fruits are transported to processing plants because coffee cherries don't keep well - the sweet pulp starts to ferment. If beans are contaminated with fermentation flavors (a common occurrence), they become worthless.

Therefore, once fruits are ripe, from harvesting to subsequent processing, there's no time to waste.

Generally, red fruits go in, green beans come out - that's roughly how it works.

Four Processing Methods: Dry, Wet, Semi-Dry, Semi-Wet

Seed extraction methods can be divided into four processing types: "natural," "washed," "semi-natural," and "semi-washed." Each method has pros and cons. However, regardless of the method used, the key is to prevent green beans from being infected with mold, absorbing off-flavors, and becoming spoiled or degraded to inferior quality.

To understand the various extraction methods, you must know the structure of coffee fruits.

Coffee fruits, from outside to inside, can be divided into skin, pulp, mucilage (sticky substance), parchment layer (also called pergamino), silver skin (also called test), and seeds. In principle, the first three layers (skin, pulp, and mucilage) are removed. The parchment part will be removed when the coffee beans are ready for export to other countries. As for the silver skin, during the roasting stage when beans expand, it flies off.

Natural Method - Dependent on Weather

Coffee beans are spread on drying patios for natural drying. Time depends on climate, approximately two to four weeks to reduce the moisture content of beans inside the fruits to 12% and become hard, then hulling machines are used to remove the dry pulp and parchment to extract coffee beans. Natural processed beans have yellowish color, and beans are prone to chipped edges, but this is unavoidable damage.

Advantages: Naturally processed beans absorb fruit sugar essence during the drying process, resulting in strong fruity aroma, heavy sweetness, and better body than washed beans. Low processing cost, countries with relative water scarcity prefer this method.

Disadvantages: Dependent on weather. If it rains or weather becomes humid, mold can easily grow and contaminate beans. Natural processed beans have slightly lower acidity.

Conclusion: Natural processed bean quality is either very good or very bad, inconsistent quality affects perception.

Washed Method - Favorite for Specialty Beans

The washed method is currently the most popular processing method and also the most technically sophisticated of all extraction methods. Through multiple screening steps, coffee quality is ensured. Bean color shows beautiful blue-green, which is why people call them green beans.

Here's a simplified three-step process:

Step 1: Remove skin and pulp. Done mechanically.

Step 2: Remove the sticky mucilage layer. Through microbial fermentation, mucilage is decomposed into water-soluble pectic acid and removed by stirring and rubbing. During fermentation, organic acids are produced (including malic acid, citric acid, acetic acid, lactic acid, and propionic acid), and some acids penetrate the beans, increasing the fruity acidity of the beans. (This step is crucial)

Step 3: Washing and drying. Use water washing to stop fermentation reaction, then preserve by sun drying or machine drying.

Advantages: Washed beans have better fruity acidity and brightness, with clean flavor without off-notes. Good bean appearance. Stable quality. Due to increased acidity, even robusta beans can be elevated with elegant flavor and value.

Disadvantages: Sweetness not as good as natural processed beans, high water consumption - 200g of beans require at least 2 liters of water, relatively high cost.

Conclusion: Process is complex, but quality is stable, making it the most relied-upon extraction method for specialty beans.

Semi-Natural Method - Taking the Best of Both

The semi-natural method is somewhat similar to a combination of natural and washed methods. Brazil first pioneered using washing methods to remove skin, pulp, and part of the mucilage, then uses sun drying to dry the sticky mucilage (about a day until the mucilage on the parchment becomes hard, supplemented by machine drying). During the drying process, sugar from the mucilage can penetrate the beans. When ready for export, when removing parchment, the upper mucilage layer is also removed.

Advantages: Semi-natural processed beans retain the sweetness and body of natural processed beans while reducing the risk of mold infection.

Disadvantages: Because mucilage is sticky, it easily clumps together and cannot dry evenly. Therefore, during the mucilage drying process, large amounts of labor must be employed to turn the beans up and down. Fruity acidity is lower than washed method beans.

Conclusion: Should be considered an improved version of the natural method!

Supplement: When all mucilage is preserved as much as possible on the parchment, dried naturally in the sun and air for about one to two weeks, during which time beans are turned every hour for even drying. After complete dehydration, they are placed in wooden containers for maturation - very labor-intensive, but the "honey-processed" result tastes sweet as honey. This processing method is called "honey processing." (If you like heavy sweetness, try honey-processed coffee!)

Semi-Washed Method - With Machines, Everything is Easy

First use a pulper to remove skin and pulp, then use a mucilage remover (this step requires only a small amount of water) to remove the sticky mucilage layer, then move outdoors for sun drying.

Advantages: Only need to invest in a pulper and mucilage remover.

Disadvantages: Fruity acidity is slightly lower than washed beans, while sweetness is lower than semi-natural processed beans, flavor falls between semi-natural and washed.

Conclusion: Very convenient method, so don't be too particular about the flavor.

References

1. "Coffee Science" by Huaizong Han
2. "The Joy of Coffee" by Corby Kummer, translated by Shouhuai Liu
3. "Coffee Prince Takes You to Café Addiction" by Zhonglun Zhang and Yuxin Tan

Arabica Coffee Bean Brand Recommendations

FrontStreet Coffee's roasted Arabica coffee beans have full guarantees in both brand and quality. More importantly, they offer extremely high value-for-money. Each 227-gram package costs only about 70-90 yuan. Calculating based on 15 grams of coffee beans per cup, one package can make 15 cups of coffee, with each cup costing only about 5-6 yuan. Compared to café prices that often exceed 100 yuan per cup, this is truly a conscientious recommendation.

FrontStreet Coffee: A Guangzhou-based roastery with a small shop but diverse bean varieties, where you can find various famous and lesser-known beans, while also providing online store services. https://shop104210103.taobao.com

Important Notice :

前街咖啡 FrontStreet Coffee has moved to new addredd:

FrontStreet Coffee Address: 315,Donghua East Road,GuangZhou

Tel:020 38364473