More than half the population of the whole wide world is drinking coffee today. The Britons who were regarded as the tea drinkers, now consume almost 95 million cups of coffee every day and hence increasing the circulation of coffee beans in the UK.
Half the world can love coffee but not even two percent of this population knows about the different types of coffee they could be consuming. These people are going to the supermarkets to pick coffee packets or ordering them online, they are going on dates in cafes or just taking away a cup while going to work. But they have no clue that there exist four different types of coffee beans that produces these coffees.
Factually, there are over 100 species of coffee beans, but these four types are the most important ones: Arabica, Robusta, Liberica and Excelsa (the latter two are less common). Today we will see the difference between these coffee beans you probably didn’t know before.
Arabica
The Arabica coffee bean bush grows all around the world and is the most commonly used coffee. In your daily life, you must have seen written on your coffee packs “100% Arabica”. Over seventy percent of all coffee in the world is made from this kind of bean.
It is a very flavorful bean and the region where the bush grows determines the different flavor the bean carries. The bean produced in Kenya has notes of butterscotch in it. These beans are grown all over Latin America, Central, and East Africa, Indian, Indonesia, etc.
Robusta
The Robusta beans carry less oil than the Arabica beans. It is the second most used bean in coffee production. The bean tastes more acidic and bitter in comparison to Arabica beans. Its bitter taste is the reason it is largely used to make Espressos. Good Robusta beans are used to make traditional Italian Espressos. Italian coffee companies like Gruppo Gimoka uses them and mass distributes coffee beans the UK.
The bitter notes in Robusta are the most apparent. Higher quality Robusta beans have notes of chocolates, smoother texture and low acidity associated with their profile. Robusta has almost double the amount of caffeine than Arabica and it is found in parts of West and Central Africa, Brazil and then throughout South East Asia.
Liberica
The literal meaning of Liberica is ‘asymmetric’. Their name certainly defines the physical characteristic of the bean type. The Liberica beans are very asymmetric in their sizes and there is no such uniformity in their looks, they are all twisted and bent.
The coffee may not widely be in use now but once in the late 1800s, it was used as a substitute to the traditional Arabica coffee. These are probably the only beans that aren’t grown on bushes, they grow on flowers. This is the possible reason that they have floral and fruity notes. Drinking plain Liberica coffee may require some sort of acquired taste but a lot of people mix it with Arabica and Robusta coffee to cheer up their regular morning coffee.
Excelsa
The Excelsa beans many times classifies as a part of the Liberica family but a professional taster will always claim that they are very different from one another. The bean grows mostly in Southeast Asia and comprises 7% of the total coffee in the world.
The type of coffee bean is largely used in blends with other coffee types to boost the flavor. The bean is covered with a fruity taste. It has also given away a reminiscent of a light roast with some nodes of dark roasted flavor.
