Coffee Beans

About

The Best Coffee Beans. The two principle commercially grown coffee beans are Arabica and Robusta coffee species. Arabica coffee beans are considered to be far superior to Robusta coffee beans because they produce a milder and sweeter tasting cup of coffee. Robusta coffee beans, which make up to 41% of the world's entire coffee production, usually have double the caffeine content of Arabicas and tend to produce a harsher and heavier tasting coffee. You can easily spot the difference between the two types of coffee beans just by looking at them, the Arabica coffee bean is usually oval and the Robusta coffee beans are normally round in shape. Coffee beans are believed to have originated from Ethiopia with the legend of Kaldi the Goatherd discovering coffee being famous all over the globe. South American countries including Colombia, Mexico, Guatemala and Brazil are thought to produce some of the World's best Arabica coffee beans. Where are Coffee Beans cultivated? Arabica coffee beans, Coffea Arabica, are cultivated in many countries between the Tropic of Capricorn and the Tropic of Cancer. Robusta coffee beans, Coffea Canephora, are usually grown in the eastern hemisphere in continents like Africa and Asia. The coffee tree usually takes a minimum of three years before it will properly produce a harvest. The coffee plant which has deep green waxy leaves takes nearly nine months to produce one harvest per year. It is not unusual to see coffee trees with ripe red cherries ready to pick alongside green cherries and even white blossom all at the same time. The fruit of the coffee tree is a red cherry which contains two seeds which we call coffee beans. The coffee tree will produce between 2 to 4 kilos of coffee cherries per year. Robusta coffee beans are grown between sea level and roughly 800 meters and Arabica coffee beans are cultivated at a much higher altitude in the hills and mountains. Coffee beans are harvested by either carefully and selectively hand picking them