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Types of Coffee Beans

 

First of all, coffee beans are not actually beans, but the seed of a cherry from a coffee tree. These trees grow in subtropical climates from sea level to around 6000 feet.

Harvesting Coffee Beans

Coffee is a very labor intensive commodity. The cherries ripen at different times so they must be picked by hand. Since there are about 4000 coffee beans in a pound, 2000 cherries must be hand picked (there are two beans per cherry). The average coffee tree will produce only about 2 pounds of roasted coffee per year.

Next, the fruit of the cherry needs to be removed from the seeds. This is accomplished by either of 2 ways, the dry process or the wet process.

The dry process is to let the cherries dry out in the sun or in dryers and then use machines to strip the dried fruit off of the coffee beans.

The wet process uses a soaking method to make the fruit come off and produces coffee which is referred to as washed coffee.

These green coffee beans are then sent to be dried. After drying, they are sorted by size and graded (usually by hand). Then they are bagged and sent to the roasters. The beans will remain green until roasted.

It is important to note that green coffee will stay fresh for a very long time. When freshness is talked about in coffee, it means from date that the green beans have been roasted. You can read more about this on our roasting page.

Now that you a little about the process, there are 2 species of coffee, robusta and arabica.

Robusta:

Robusta coffee is a lower grade of coffee that is typically grown at lower elevations. It has more of an astringent flavor and contains a higher amount of caffeine.

The robusta trees are easier to grow and maintain. They are also more disease resistant and produce a higher yield. This type of coffee is typically used to achieve a lower price.

Arabica:

Arabica coffee is the superior grade of coffee that most people usually refer to as gourmet coffee. They contain about half of the caffeine of robusta and have more desirable flavors and aromatic properties.
Much of the coffee grown world wide is of the arabica species, but only a fraction meets standard set by the Specialty Coffee Association of America.