“Hey, come and try our coffee beverage, our coffee bean is made up of 100% Arabica beans.” Does this sentence sound familiar to you? I am certain the answer is yes for many of us, Basically we will come across this statement from many coffee quotes, a neighborhood cafe or even billboard advertising. One will start to wonder, what does the word coffee Arabica mean?
Arabica coffee was the first species of coffee that was produced in large-scale quantity for commercial use purpose. Also, it was slowly becoming the most popular kind of coffee bean to use when brewing your favorite cuppa. According to the International Coffee Organisation, Arabica coffee beans make up to 60% or more in coffee production worldwide. Back in the 7th century, coffee beans went to the civilization of Arabia from Ethiopia *Dubbed as the Motherland of coffee*. Once it arrived in Arabia, “coffee” was born.
Arabica coffee species is a type of coffee that grows from coffee arabica plants originate from the highlands of Ethiopia. In the highlands with altitudes up to 1500 meters, the coffee plants can have perfect growth conditions such as having sufficient levels of rainfall and consistent cool climate between 15-24°C throughout the year. It takes around 7 years to grow and thus develops red cherries.
Arabica coffee species is best grown in countries around the coffee equator between the Tropics of Cancer & The Tropics of Capricorn like South America, Central America and Africa. Depending on the development of a coffee roasting profile, one of a good indication of a high quality Arabica coffee beans is that it will have characteristics of higher sweetness, more natural flavors and lesser bitterness than its counterpart - Robusta coffee species So now we have go through a basic understanding on what is Arabica Coffee, let’s talk about its differences to its siblings in the coffee world = Coffea Canephora or better known as Robusta Coffee Species
So, what are the differences between Arabica & Robusta coffee?
Firstly, Arabica beans are bigger in size than robusta. Furthermore, arabica has less caffeine content compared to robusta. On the other hand, robusta actually has twice as much caffeine as arabica. For people who are concerned about the negative effect of caffeine, arabica will be a better choice for them. Also, Arabica contains more sweetness than robusta as it contains almost twice the sugar content than robusta.
In addition, Arabica has higher acidity compared to robusta. In this case, robusta has lower acidity which makes it more woody flavour. As compared to robusta, arabica has more pleasant flavours such as chocolaty, nutty and fruity-like berries. Due to the characteristics that arabica is very sensitive to the environment it can grow, arabica coffee species has lower yield as compared to robusta coffee species. Therefore, due to its limited volume arabica coffee beans fetch a higher price than robusta coffee beans. To brew a perfect cup of Arabica coffee, first we have to choose the flavor of the coffee that we like.
At Ghostbird Coffee Roaster, we categories them into Three Major Flavors Spectrum :
This simple step enables consumers to pick the coffee beans that they would love to try by simply picking what flavor spectrum they love to experience / enjoy. Secondly after picking up the flavors that we would love to experience, the crucial step is to freshly grind the coffee beans before we are going to brew it. Try to avoid pre-grind coffee because air exposure will directly affect the flavor of the coffee. Bear in mind that grind size of the coffee beans are equally important as well. Coffee beans that are grounded too fine tend to be more bitter flavor spectrum. Oppositely, coarser in grind size contribute to flat taste. Lastly, make sure the brewing equipment is clean to avoid contamination that can affect the taste of the coffee. Now, we can enjoy our ME-TIME with a perfect cup of Arabica coffee.
