Coffee

Coffee and Its Varietals

Second to water in popularity, coffee is consumed by billions of people throughout the world. Statistics have shown that about 400 billion cups are consumed annually and that children and adults have been taking it for several good reasons.

Coffee is a popular beverage served in two ways: hot or with ice. It is naturally prepared from the roasted seeds of a coffee plant, and these seeds are known as "coffee beans”. The beans originate from an evergreen tree which has grown and has been cultivated in a number of subtropical areas around the world, including Latin America, the Caribbean Islands, Africa, Arabian Peninsula, Indonesia and other regions in Southeast Asia.

Being cultivated and produced in a number of countries, coffee comes in varieties. Each variety has its distinctive quality and differs according to flavor, acidity, amount of caffeine, and mouth feel. All of these characteristics are highly dependent on the environment where the coffee plants are grown, as well as on the way they are processed and produced.

There are three major varietals of coffee: the C. Robusta, C. Arabica, and the Blended types. Below are short descriptions for each type. Read on.

* C. Robusta – Known scientifically as coffee canephora, the Robusta variety naturally contains 40 to 50 percent of caffeine and is cultivated in some major areas in the world where the second variety, C. Arabica, will not thrive. This type has a bitter taste and has little flavor. Its aroma is deemed as something similar to that of brunt rubber or wet cardboard. And, one of the very pricey and unusual subtype of this species is the Indonesian Kopi Luwak and the Kape Alamid, which is known and highly valued in the Philippines.

* C. Arabica – Noted to have originated from the Arabian Peninsula, the Coffee Arabica is the older type of coffee known to man. It is thought to be indigenous to Ethiopia, and is widely known for its richer flavor and taste. Some of the well-known subtypes of C. Arabica are Colombian, Colombian milds, Costa Rican Tarrazu, Guatemala, Hawaiian Kona, Jamaica Blue Mountain, Ethiopian Harrar, Ethiopian Yirgacheffe, Sulawesi Toraja Kalossi, Tanzania Peaberry, Sumatra Mandheling, Sumatra Lintong, Java, and Kenya AA.

* Blends – As the name implies, this coffee variety is a combination of both C. Arabica and C. Robusta. Blends are generally considered mainly to create a sense of balance and complexity. With this idea, a number of blends are available nowadays and one of the oldest is the Mocha Java, which is but a combination of coffee beans belonging to the same name. This blend is noted for its chocolate flavor, leading to the blending of the known Café Mocha.

Several other varieties of coffee exist nowadays. All of these varieties are prepared from the blends, which are mixed with other less expensive varieties to provide a new taste and flavor. The Jamaica Blue Mountain and the Hawaiian Kona are but two of the most prominent examples of these recent coffee blends.