What Is Arabica Coffee and Why Does It Dominate?

Arabica is not a brand or a country of origin; it is one of the three main coffee species, alongside Robusta and Liberica. It accounts for more than 70% of global production and is the species most often used for single-origin and specialty coffee. Robusta is widely used in instant coffee, while Liberica is rare on the market and mostly kept for research.

Common arabica coffee varieties include Typica, Bourbon, Caturra, Catuai, SL28, SL34, Geisha, Ethiopian heirloom types, and Catimor. Origin, altitude, and processing method all shape how each one tastes in the cup. Arabica is generally treated as the premium species and Robusta as secondary, but the split is not absolute, and the better guide is the flavor profile a drinker prefers.

When buying coffee, what exactly does "Arabica," which appears so frequently on packaging, mean? It is not a coffee brand from some country, but an important coffee species. This article, from the perspective of Front Street Coffee, will sort out the differences between Arabica, Robusta, and Liberica, explain why Arabica can account for more than 70% of global production, and clarify its connection with specialty coffee. At the same time, the article will introduce one by one the common Arabica sub-varieties on the market—Typica, Bourbon, Caturra, Catuai, SL28 and SL34, Geisha, Ethiopian heirloom varieties, and Catimor—combining the origin, altitude, processing method, and brewing flavor of Front Street's representative beans to help coffee lovers build a clear framework for understanding varieties.

Is Arabica a coffee brand from some country?

In fact, Arabica is not a brand. It is the name of a coffee variety, and it is extremely common in the coffee world.

"100% Arabica coffee beans," "selected Arabica coffee beans"... When buying coffee products in daily life, the word "Arabica" is often seen on packaging. As a result, quite a few friends have come to ask Front Street Coffee (FrontStreet Coffee) about Arabica coffee beans. In this article, Front Street will give everyone a brief introduction to what Arabica coffee actually is.

If classified biologically, coffee can be divided into three major categories: Arabica, Robusta, and Liberica. The two most widely circulated around the world are mainly Arabica and Robusta. Because Liberica has relatively low production or less ideal quality, it is generally used only for variety research and development, and is rarely sold separately on the market.

(Comparison of Arabica and Robusta)

Generally speaking, Arabica is more often used for today's single-origin coffee and specialty coffee, while Robusta is heavily used in the production of instant coffee. This does not mean that Robusta is necessarily inferior to Arabica; it is simply roughly how the market's main uses for the two varieties break down.

Although Arabica can be regarded as premium coffee and Robusta as secondary coffee, there is no need to be so absolute. It is actually more appropriate to distinguish them according to the taste you prefer. Not all Arabica beans are necessarily the best, nor are all Robusta beans necessarily bad.

What is Arabica coffee?

Arabica coffee beans are not just the name of a certain variety. More accurately, Arabica is a coffee species. Through natural mutation, natural hybridization, artificial hybridization, and breeding, there are now as many as over a hundred coffee varieties under the Arabica species.

But regardless of which variety they belong to, coffees of the Arabica species all originate from the Ethiopia region, and current production accounts for about 70% to 75% of the world's coffee. Front Street believes that the main reason Arabica is so widely popular is that coffees of this species are more pleasant in flavor and taste expression than Robusta and Liberica.

Although coffees of the Arabica species have better flavor, their shortcoming is that many varieties have relatively weak resistance to disease and pests, so they are more suitable for growing in high-altitude areas. In particular, coffee grown at an altitude of 1,200 meters will have a richer and more delicate flavor, but the cultivation and processing stages also require more manpower and material resources to ensure quality. Therefore, high-altitude Arabica is more expensive than low-altitude Arabica.

What is specialty coffee?

Not all Arabica coffee beans count as specialty coffee. The term "Specialty Coffee" was first proposed in English. If translated as "characteristic coffee" or "specialty product coffee," it refers to coffee beans cultivated under a region's unique microclimate and geographical conditions, producing flavors that represent the origin.

Simply put, with specialty coffee you can taste flavors that represent the characteristics of the origin. For example, from Arabica coffee beans from the Ethiopia region, we can taste bright acidity; from Arabica coffee beans from the Indonesia region, we can taste a herbal, full-bodied flavor.

With so many sub-varieties under the Arabica species, which coffee varieties are mainstream on the market?

Although there are many sub-varieties under the Arabica species, the ones currently widely used are actually not many. The main ones are the Ethiopian heirloom variety Heirloom, Typica, Bourbon, Caturra, Catuai, Catimor, Geisha, and SL28 and SL34.

1. Jamaica: Typica

Typica is one of the oldest Arabica coffee varieties in the world. The top leaves of the Typica coffee tree are bronze-colored, and the beans are oval or slender and pointed. The flavor is elegant and balanced, but the plant is relatively weak, has poor disease resistance, and low yield. Basically, wherever Arabica coffee can be grown, Typica has appeared. Many famous coffees, such as Jamaica Blue Mountain, Sumatra Mandheling, and Hawaii Kona, are Typica.

Front Street Blue Mountain No. 1 Coffee Beans

Origin: Jamaica, Blue Mountains

Estate: Clifton Mount Estate

Altitude: 1310m

Variety: Typica

Processing method: Washed

Brewing flavor: Dark chocolate, nuts, cream, balanced acidity, sweetness, and bitterness

2. Brazil: Bourbon

Bourbon was first discovered in Brazil in 1930 and currently mainly grows in Brazil. It is generally believed that it may have arisen from a mutation after hybridization between the red-fruited Bourbon variety and a yellow-fruited Typica variant called "Amerelo de Botocatu" (discovered in São Paulo in 1871). Because of its low yield and relatively poor resistance to wind and rain, Bourbon has not been widely planted. However, when grown in high-altitude areas, it has excellent flavor and obvious sweetness.

Front Street Queen's Estate Coffee Beans

Region: Mogiana region, Brazil

Estate: Queen's Estate

Altitude: 1400m - 1950m

Variety: Yellow Bourbon

Processing method: Natural

Flavor: Nuts, creamy peanut, cane sugar, fermented fruit

3. Colombia: Caturra

Caturra is a single-gene mutation of Bourbon, discovered in Brazil in 1937. Its productivity and disease resistance are both better than Bourbon, and the tree is shorter, making harvesting convenient. Unfortunately, like Bourbon, it has a biennial cycle problem of fluctuating production. But Caturra's flavor is comparable to Bourbon beans, and more importantly, it has super strong adaptability and does not need shade trees, so it is also called Sun Coffee. It can adapt to high-density planting, but requires more fertilizer, which increases cultivation costs.

Front Street Huila Coffee Beans

Region: Huila region, Colombia

Altitude: 1500 meters—1800 meters

Variety: Caturra

Processing method: Washed

Brewing flavor: Nuts, dark chocolate, caramel, soft fruit acidity

4. Brazil: Catuai

Catuai is an artificially bred hybrid of Caturra and Mundo Novo developed in Brazil in 1950. Catuai inherited Mundo Novo's attributes of high yield, strong disease resistance, and good cup quality, and also inherited Caturra's attributes of small size, high-quality acidity, and sun coffee. Because the plant is smaller, it can be planted at twice the density. Catuai's flavor expression is soft acidity, a clean mouthfeel, and rich fruity aroma.

5. Kenya: SL28 & SL34

SL28 is one of the famous coffee varieties in Africa. SL28 was selected and bred by the former Scott Agricultural Laboratories (now the National Agricultural Laboratories). This variety has good drought resistance, tolerates drought, pests, and diseases, and is suitable for growing in medium- to high-altitude areas, but it is susceptible to common diseases.

SL34 was also selected and bred by the former Scott Agricultural Laboratories in the late 1930s. At that time, researchers selected trees prefixed with SL in plantations and studied their yield, quality, drought resistance, and disease resistance.

SL28 and SL34 have similar flavors, but SL34 has richer acidity and a more intense mouthfeel. However, both varieties have a unique Kenyan flavor, with rich fruit acidity and a balanced mouthfeel.

Front Street Kenya Little Tomato Coffee Beans

Region: Asali Processing Plant, Thika region, Kenya

Altitude: 1550 meters—1750 meters

Variety: SL28, SL34

Processing method: K72 washed processing

Flavor description: Smoked plum, cherry tomato, snow pear, yellow sugar, plum

6. Panama: Geisha

Geisha is a genetic mutation of Typica, originating from the Geisha forest in Ethiopia. After decades of artificial cultivation, it spread to Panama in the 1960s, was discovered and independently planted by Hacienda La Esmeralda, and became famous after winning first place at BOP in 2004, setting multiple auction price records. It has a jasmine-like fragrance, citrus sweetness, and rich floral and fruity aroma with a tea-like body.

Front Street Hacienda La Esmeralda Red Label Geisha Coffee Beans

Region: Boquete, Panama, Hacienda La Esmeralda

Plot: Jaramillo, Mario

Altitude: 1700m

Variety: Geisha

Processing method: Natural

Flavor description: Citrus, complex fruit, rose tea, honey

7. Ethiopia: Heirloom

The term "Heirloom" in Ethiopia refers to "the country's own coffee varieties." Many smallholder coffee farmers in the Ethiopia region plant multiple varieties at the same time in their own backyards. Of course, some coffee farmers also select better varieties separately for cultivation and sale. Because most local coffee exists in a wild or semi-wild state and the population is huge, it is impossible to carefully distinguish varieties household by household.

Therefore, most coffee varieties are mixed in cultivation and mixed in harvesting, so many coffee beans from the Ethiopia region are mixed together. Because specialty coffee requires listing the coffee variety, Ethiopia named these natural mixed varieties Heirloom. Because it is a mix of multiple varieties, Ethiopian heirloom coffee beans look uneven in size and also display bright citrus acidity and green-tea-like sweetness.

Front Street Yirgacheffe Gedeb Cooperative Coffee Beans

Region: Yirgacheffe, Ethiopia

Cooperative: Gedeb Cooperative

Altitude: 2000m - 2100m

Variety: Local heirloom varieties

Processing method: Washed

Flavor: Citrus, black tea, floral fragrance, cream, caramel, almond

8. Yunnan: Catimor

In the 1970s and 1980s, coffee leaf rust broke out in many countries in Central and South America, seriously affecting coffee production. In response to coffee leaf rust, a Portuguese coffee research center, CIFC, crossed Timor, which carries Robusta genes, with the Bourbon variant Caturra in 1959 to breed the disease-resistant and high-yielding Catimor.

Because it carries Robusta genes, Catimor's flavor performance is not as excellent as that of other common Arabica varieties, but it also has plum-like acidity and nutty aroma, while also having low cultivation cost and high yield. In 1952, scientific and technical personnel from the Yunnan Academy of Agricultural Sciences distributed 80 kg of coffee seeds to farmers in Lujiangba, Baoshan for trial planting, and found that its adaptability performed well and its quality was excellent, allowing Yunnan coffee cultivation to develop and grow again. By 1988, Nestlé established a new joint venture in China to promote coffee planting projects and introduced the high-yield Catimor variety. This move greatly promoted large-scale coffee cultivation in Yunnan. Therefore, Catimor is widely planted in the Yunnan region of China.

Front Street Yunnan Baoshan Catimor Arabica Coffee Beans

Region: Lujiangba, Baoshan, Yunnan, China

Altitude: 1450-1550m

Variety: Catimor

Processing method: Red cherry natural processing

Flavor description: Nuts, chocolate, spices, caramel, red berries, plum

The above content is compiled by CoffeeHunters, a coffee news website.