This wonderful waking drink has developed from a luxury good to an everyday drink that has become part of the lifestyle for many. What many do not know, however, is that not all coffee is created equal. There is an almost unmanageable number of types of coffee on the market, which differ in many ways. The most popular bean is arabica, but there’s still a lot to discover besides.
Anyone who deals with the coffee bean first realizes that the coffee bean is actually not a bean at all, but rather the seed of the coffee plant. The kernels of the coffee fruits have a caffeine content of 0.8 to 2.5 percent. If you buy your coffee in the supermarket, you will find many different brands, but the selection is quite limited because almost all supermarket coffees are based on just two types of coffee: Arabica and Robusta beans. According to estimates, Arabica and Robusta share around 99 percent of the coffee market. The Arabica has a share of 70%, the Robusta about 30 percent. The rest is then shared by the many types of coffee that are rather off the mainstream.
Harvest and preparation
After the coffee beans have been harvested, there are major differences in terms of quality and taste due to processing. In particular, the way in which the coffee bean is removed from the cherry and freed from the remains of the pulp has a major influence on the later taste. There are basically two types of processing.
First of all, “dry processing”. Here, the coffee cherries are placed on the warm soil or drying devices to dry immediately after the harvest. The coffee beans take on the taste of the pulp and get their characteristic exotic taste. In addition, there is “wet processing.” Here the coffee cherries are grown in a water tank, whereby the pulp becomes detached from the bean. The result is a floral and slightly fruity taste.
There are also lots of tricks that can be used to refine coffee beans during processing. An example would be the Indian monsoon coffee. Here, the coffee sacks with the beans are deliberately exposed to high humidity for a few weeks, which also causes them to ferment. This method of preparation has its origin in the transport of coffee beans on sailing ships during the monsoon season. The coffee bags were also exposed to rain and moisture, which resulted in a unique taste.
After the bean has been dried, it is only through the subsequent roasting that it becomes coffee. Coffee beans roast for about 10 to 15 minutes and espresso beans for 15 to 18 minutes. As a result, espresso is darker than coffee and has a glossy finish due to the escaping coffee oils. In addition, of course, it tastes much more intense.
Arabica
The Arabica bean originally comes from Ethiopia. It is by far the most popular coffee bean in the world. Today it is mainly cultivated in Brazil and Colombia. Despite its great popularity, the Arabica is anything but frugal in cultivation. The bean needs a balanced, warm climate without large temperature fluctuations. As their preferred habitat, the bean likes altitudes above 1,300 meters. But the effort is worth it because the Arabica delivers a particularly round and intense aroma. The low chlorogenic acid content also makes Arabica particularly digestible.
Robusta
The Robusta bean is far less demanding. As its name suggests, this coffee is extremely robust. The Robusta can be found in African growing areas and partly in Indonesia. The bean can therefore be grown in flat areas where temperatures can fluctuate. The taste of the Robusta is not quite as diverse as that of the Arabica beans, but the coffee convinces with its slight acidity, which makes Robusta-based coffee extremely digestible. In addition, the Robusta bean has twice as high caffeine content as the Arabica bean.
Liberica
Named after the African state of Liberia, the Liberica bean is mainly found in Africa. Compared to Arabica and Robusta, this type of coffee has much lower sugar content. Why is this coffee not as highly regarded as Arabica or Robusta? The beans have a lower proportion of liquid thus, in contrast to its relatives, this bean does not grow on low bushes, but on trees up to 10 meters high in the rainforest. Pure Liberica coffee is hard to come by now. Rather, the bean is used in so-called “blends”, in which in many cases it provides a special taste kick.
Maragogype
The Brazilian city of Maragojipe gave the Maragogype bean its name. This bean is a further development of the Arabica bean, which has a very mild taste and is very digestible due to its low acidity. It is particularly suitable for preparation as filter coffee. Because of its size, the bean is nicknamed the “elephant bean.” Today the largest growing areas of the Maragogype are in Nicaragua and Mexico.
Kopi Luwak
Very few people have ever drunk this coffee, but you’ve might have heard about it before. The Asian Kopi Luwak is the world’s most expensive type of coffee and is also known as “cat coffee.” The latter can be traced back to the extraordinary production of the coffee variety. The Asian crawling cats prefer to eat the cherries of the coffee plant, which is found in East Timor and Vietnam.
Since the bean cannot be digested, it is excreted again. The excreta is then picked up by the villagers and washed and lightly roasted. The beans are subjected to fermentation in the intestines of the crawling cats, which changes the taste properties of the bean. In contrast to conventional types of coffee, Kopi Luwak tastes more earthy, musty, dark, and full.
Meanwhile, the animals pay a high price for the extraordinary taste. Because in order to be able to produce the coveted coffee in large quantities, the sneak cats are locked in cages by the thousands and are given nothing but coffee cherries to eat. Of course, this diet in no way corresponds to the cats’ actually varied diet. Anyone who drinks this coffee must therefore be aware that they support and encourage the inappropriate keeping of crawling cats.
Excelsa
The Excelsa bean is also particularly rare and particularly expensive. It was discovered in Lake Chad in Africa. This type of coffee is extremely robust and even grows on dry soils, and gets by with relatively little water. Their share in the global coffee trade is less than one percent. In terms of taste, the beans are very strong and earthy. The Excelsa is even rarer than the Kopi Luwak, as only a small proportion of the beans harvested are intended for export. Many compare their taste to a first-class scotch rather than a conventional coffee. Due to its rarity, the Excelsa can hardly be found in its pure form, but it refines many blends immensely.
The stomach-friendly coffee
Although coffee is part of everyday life for many people, the drink is not digestible for everyone. If you want to take it easy on your stomach but don’t want to go without caffeine, the best option is Maragogype.
Mixtures
Many types of coffee are combined and mixed with one another. Large coffee groups in particular mix Arabica, Robusta, and other types of coffee, as well as beans from different growing areas. This creates particularly cheap coffees, as the industrial groups make themselves less dependent on crop failures in individual growing areas. Small coffee manufacturers, on the other hand, rely on single-origin coffee. These types of coffee consist of only one type of coffee, which, moreover, only comes from one growing area and perhaps even from a certain coffee plantation.