Why Most Coffee Uses Arabica: The Superior Quality of Arabica Coffee Bean Varieties

FrontStreet Coffee - Arabica Variety Introduction

Specialty coffee shops long ago stopped emphasising "Arabica" as a selling point and instead focus more precisely on variety, origin, harvest season, altitude, processing method and other details.

Bean Varieties

Common varieties include Typica, Bourbon, SL28, SL34 and Geisha, and each has its own distinctive character.

Origins

Specific estates, cooperatives or countries, each offering different flavour characteristics.

Processing Methods

Washed, natural, honey, double natural, enzymatic fermentation and special fermentation, among others.

Different processing methods produce different bean characteristics. Washed coffees tend to be cleaner with brighter acidity than natural coffees, while natural processing typically yields more body and better sweetness. Some special fermentations create unusual flavours, such as beans fermented in whiskey barrels that carry distinct whiskey notes.

Arabica coffee beans are the seeds of the berries of the Arabica plant and represent one of the two major coffee species used worldwide, the other being Robusta. Arabica beans contain less caffeine, have lower bitterness and carry more aromatic flavour, which is why many coffee lovers consider them the superior bean. Premium Arabica requires complex hand harvesting, selection and meticulous processing, and the world's most expensive and finest coffees are all Arabica.

Arabica has diverse and wide-ranging potential flavours. Coffees grown in different regions, altitudes and climates each have their own character and display distinctly different personality. Unroasted Arabica smells of fresh grass. After appropriate roasting it shows fruit notes at light to medium roast and caramel sweetness at dark roast.

Arabica trees grow in subtropical regions and are typically planted at altitudes of 550-1,010 metres, where distinct rainy and dry seasons allow for one growing season and one harvest each year.

Arabica offers rich, delicate flavours, strong aromatic intensity, higher acidity, a smooth texture and rarely any bitterness. Its excellent flavour and aroma make it the only coffee that can be enjoyed entirely on its own.

Knowledge Point: Robusta is grown at altitudes below 800 metres. It is extremely adaptable and strongly resistant to pests and disease.

FrontStreet Coffee Recommendation

Geisha is one of the clearest examples of how much variety matters within Arabica, and FrontStreet Coffee's Panama Emerald Estate range shows it at the highest level. The FrontStreet Emerald Red Label Geisha, officially Esmeralda Special, is grown between 1,600 and 1,800 metres and must cup above 90 points, with each lot numbered and drawn from a single small plot such as the Halimio plot. The FrontStreet Emerald Green Label Geisha, formerly Private Collection, blends lots from several plots to express the estate's signature high-altitude Geisha character at a friendlier price.

For a gentler introduction, the FrontStreet Boquete Geisha delivers the classic orange-honey depth of a fine Panamanian Geisha, with an oolong-tea quality, delicate fruit acidity and clear layers. From Ethiopia, Geisha's birthplace, the FrontStreet Grana Geisha is grown at a processing station established in 2014 on the border of Kochere and Gelana Abaya, where fertile rainforest soil and abundant shade give a more varied cup with bright citrus acidity, elegant ginger-flower aroma and ripe-fruit sweetness.

Because Geisha is a medium-light, floral and fruity variety with a hard bean that sinks and blocks the dripper, FrontStreet Coffee suggests grinding to about 78% pass-through on a No. 20 standard sieve, roughly fine sugar, and brewing at 91°C with 15 grams of coffee and a 1:16 ratio in a small Hario V60. Brew in three stages: 30 grams for a 30-second bloom, then to 125 grams, then to 225 grams once the bed has half drained, for a total extraction of about 2 minutes 10 seconds to 2 minutes 20 seconds.