Coffee bean types. What kinds are there and which taste best?

How to find the best coffee bean types. When we think about types of coffee beans we often put names on them like Guatemala Antigua or Columbian, Sumatran etc. However the best beans are Arabica which grow in all these countries. There are different varieties of Arabica but the same Arabic variety grown in different countries will taste very different.

The other major type of bean is Robusta which is an inferior bean which is often used in canned coffees and as an espresso blend.

The things that will affect the taste are the amount of rain, the temperature, the altitude and the soil. You wouldn’t expect the same type of Arabica to taste the same if it was grown in volcanic soil above 3000 feet as beans grown at sea level in a sandy soil. So the type is only part of the equation.

And of course the way the beans are harvested will also affect the quality of your cup of coffee. Some smaller farms will only allow the pickers to harvest by hand and only take the ripe beans. Then they will come back later to get the ones they left behind the first time. Other larger farms will mass harvest all the beans and of course you get all the beans ripe and unripe.

Processing the beans differently will mean the same type of bean tastes different even if grown in the same area. Dry processing the original method of drying beans in the sunshine on a flat rooftop will make beans taste differently than wet processing where beans are softened in water and then the seeds (the beans) are separated by machine nd either sun dried or dried in special coffee dryers.

And shipping the beans can also affect flavor. Beans can pick up odors and are subject to spoiling in high humidity.

So you can see that bean type is not the only factor in a great cup of coffee.





Coffee bean types to How to Make Coffee