QandAs: Food

What are the Types of Coffee Beans?

Answer:
Coffee beans are not actually beans, but the

seeds of a low-lying shrub which produces a cherry-like fruit. Ideally, these bright red fruits are picked at maximum ripeness and processed to remove the coffee "beans" from the unusable flesh and skin.

The coffee beans are inspected for disease or immaturity, then bagged for future processing. Eventually coffee beans are allowed to dry, but are still raw and green. When these green beans are sold to wholesalers, they are graded and roasted before being shipped to overseas markets.

There are several dozen types of coffee beans available somewhere in the world, but most of them are either not exported or are not suitable for coffee making. One variety of coffee bean called Coffea Stephonylla almost became a popular and marketable type of coffee bean, but a series of truly unfortunate events prevented it from worldwide availability.

There are currently three types of coffee beans used in the vast majority of single-source and blended coffees sold today: Liberica, robusta and arabica. Each coffee bean type has it's own strengths and weaknesses, but most people consider arabica to be the superior bean for coffee making, followed by robusta and liberica.

Arabica coffee beans grow in higher altitudes than robusta, which makes it more susceptible to weather damage and disease, but also gives it a more delicate and less astringent flavor. An estimated 65% of all coffee sold in the world is a varietal of the original arabica bean from the Ethiopia region. Arabica coffee beans can be blended with robusta beans in standard ground coffees or instant coffee, but most coffee drinkers would recognize it as the sole bean used in gourmet coffee drinks at Starbucks and other specialty coffee stores.

Robusta beans can grow at lower altitudes and under more challenging weather conditions, but it is much stronger and more astringent than the arabica bean. Robusta beans are often blended with arabica beans to make a more flavorful but less expensive coffee blend for everyday use. The packaged coffees such as Maxwell House or Folger's may use a robusta/arabica blend in their lower end drip varieties, although many commercial coffee companies prefer to promote their 100% arabica bean blends to customers.

Liberica beans are generally found in Asian countries and are considered to be of lesser quality, although some coffee enthusiasts say the right blend of liberica and robusta beans can still produce a very drinkable coffee. Liberica beans are rarely found on coffee store shelves in the United States, but some imported blends can be ordered.


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