Coffee plant (Coffea) belongs to dicotyledones class, and these one are under the phanerogames family. Coffee is compound by different species, but the most widespread are Arabica and Robusta (Canephora). Coffee plant is a evergreen shrub that can become 10 meters high and that’s widespread into tropical regions. The final result we see, the coffee bean, in reality is one of the two seeds enclosed into berry coffee plant. The coffee berry is quite similar to a red cherry.
Arabica coffee plant was born in Ethiopia region. Arabica is the most valuable coffee plant and it represents the 75% of the overall coffee world production. Coffees made with Arabica have a round taste, a little tip of sour, and a “chocolate” touch. Their scent is intense and the crema has hazel colour close to the reddish one with an agreeable bitter tip. Arabica plant is very sensitive to hot temperatures and humidity: it grows on altitudes within 900m and 2.000m. It’s very well known that higher is the growing altitude and better are the organoleptic roasted beans features.
Beans from Arabica have lengthened shape, with an internal rut that has a sort of S drawing. The colour is green (more or less intense) with blue shades. The caffeine content can vary from 1,2% to 1,7%.
Robusta coffee plant, as its name lets suppose, has a very good resistance to hot temperatures and parasites. It’s very widespread into tropical lowlands and it grows on altitudes within 200m and 600 m. Coffees made with Robusta have a flavour more “sharp-edged”, astringent, with less fragrance, a tip of bitter taste and a brown crema colour on the grey side. Beans from Robusta are rounded with a very straight internal rut and their colour is a pale green with some grey shades. The caffeine content can vary from 1,6% to 3,2%.