Coffee Bean Varieties Overview
The coffee bean is the seed of the coffee plant, botanically not a bean. The word “coffee bean” is a folk etymology. The fruits are red, cherry-stone fruit (coffee cherries), usually with two rock cores, which lie with their flattened sides to each other. These casts are the real “coffee beans“.
These casts are the seeds of the coffee plants, and consist largely of endosperm, which contains, among other things, caffeine in amounts from about 0.8 to 2.5%. Coffee varieties belong to the genus Coffea of the family Rubiaceae. There are forty different coffee bean varieties. In recent decades, however, the offer mainly reduced to the two varieties of Arabica (Coffea arabica) and Robusta (Coffea canephora, robusta Syn).
Arabica coffee is the most important places. It makes out 60 percent of world trade and growing in the highlands, for example in Kenya, Colombia and Central America. Robusta coffee is fast-growing, higher yielding and more resistant than the arabica variety. It grows in areas up to 600 meters high. Robusta is used mainly as an additive for making espresso, as it supports the formation of the crema and brings a heavy, slightly earthy flavor.
In addition, there are:
- Coffea liberica – shrub grows up to 18 meters high and has great beans (up to 2 cm in diameter). Cultivation is very problematic, the quality rather poor quality. Therefore be planted less and less.
- Coffea excelsa – similar in size and Robusta beans in stature and leaves of Liberica. Quality varies.
These varieties are found only in some countries such as Liberia, Sierra Leone, Central African Republic and Benin, and the Philippines, Indonesia and Vietnam. The quantities produced are relatively insignificant.
The more expensive Arabica coffee bean (Coffea arabica, also known as Java Bean) is a bit more sourness of coffee with rather less bitter, lighter creme, but often with more subtle (as a “fruity” described) flavors. Robusta coffee bean (Coffea canephora), however, often has less acidity (due to less sophisticated tastes good grades, it can be roasted a bit longer, reducing) the acid is a tendency of bitter (with good coffee as a fine bitterness of dark chocolate), gives the dark creme and gives the coffee its “body” (a somewhat broader tastes, a kind of foundation).
Related posts:
- The Cheap Robusta Coffee
- Arabica Coffee, The Most Economically Important Coffee
- Find the Best Coffee
- What is Kopi Luwak (Civet Coffee) ?
- Organic Coffee: Does it Taste Any Better?
Tags: arabica, coffea, coffee bean, excelsa, java bean, liberica, robusta, rubiaceae
