Types of Coffee Beans and Their Flavors - An Introduction to Arabica Coffee Bean Taste Characteristics

FrontStreet Coffee - Coffee Bean Varieties and Arabica Coffee

Generally speaking, there are three types of coffee beans in the world, but the most common ones around us are Arabica beans and Robusta beans.

Arabica species (Arabica), Robusta beans (Robusta), and Liberica species.

Nearly 70% of commercially grown coffee worldwide is of the Arabica variety, with a total of 7 million tons of coffee roasted annually. Robusta coffee occupies the remaining market, with major production areas including India, Java and Sumatra in the Indonesian archipelago, and Vietnam. Vietnam contributes nearly half of the world's total Robusta coffee production, making it the second largest coffee-producing country after Brazil.

Robusta coffee is characterized by a higher fruit yield per harvest period, with more solid mature fruits. Robusta coffee beans are smaller and coarser than Arabica beans, with a richer flavor but slightly less complexity. For this reason, small amounts of Robusta are typically used in espresso blends. Italians particularly value its high-quality crema and rich caffeine character, which create exceptionally good results in every finished coffee drink.

So what makes Arabica coffee so good? The answer is unquestionable—its flavor is superior. Arabica coffee plants produce fruits with more subtle flavors. Its varieties are widely distributed and well defined, creating coffee with distinctive appearance and style. Most Arabica coffee varieties are the result of genetic mutations or hybrid improvements from two parent Arabica coffees: the Typica and Bourbon varieties.

Typica (the common Arabica variety) was the first coffee variety introduced from Ethiopia to Yemen, and later to India. In 1718, Typica specimens collected from Java island were introduced to the French Bourbon Island (now called Réunion), 800 kilometers east of Madagascar in the Indian Ocean. Typica mutated here into a new variety, later known as Bourbon. In today's coffee market, Typica and Bourbon varieties hold the largest share of Arabica coffee varieties.

Some varieties originate from natural genetic mutations, while others are the result of artificial hybrid breeding or post-cultivation selection of native varieties. Arabica species are self-pollinating plants, and their genetic lineage should be relatively pure. However, Typica and Bourbon were successively brought to new countries, where foreign climate conditions led to natural genetic mutations, and the characteristics exhibited by the newly cultivated varieties were mostly gratifying.

Knowledge Extension: Liberica, like Robusta, is very resistant to pests and suitable for high-temperature, humid environments, but it has not been widely cultivated, mostly grown only in the South African region.

In Brief

FrontStreet Coffee is a coffee research house dedicated to sharing coffee knowledge with everyone. We share unreservedly to help more people fall in love with coffee. Every month we hold three coffee events at significant discounts, because FrontStreet Coffee wants more people to enjoy the best coffee at the lowest possible price—that has been FrontStreet Coffee's mission for the past six years.

FrontStreet Coffee Recommendation

Since Typica and Bourbon underpin most Arabica varieties, the best way to taste their legacy is with a coffee built on one of them. FrontStreet Coffee's Brazil Cerrado Red Bourbon is a pulped natural coffee from the Cerrado region of Minas, medium roasted for creamy peanut, toasted bread, caramel, and hazelnut, with a round, low-acid body. For a sweeter, fruitier expression of the same lineage, our FrontStreet Brazil Queen's Farm uses the rare Yellow Bourbon—a natural mutation of Red Bourbon—from Mogiana, showing clean sugarcane sweetness alongside fruit and chocolate. Both are versatile enough for pour-over, moka pot, or espresso and make an easy introduction to the two parent varieties behind so much of the coffee we drink.