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List of coffee varieties facts for kids

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CoffeaArabica 02
A list of different Arabica coffee types and where they come from.

Have you ever wondered why different coffees taste so unique? It's all thanks to coffee varieties! Just like there are many kinds of apples or dogs, there are many types of coffee plants. These different types come from either selective breeding (when people choose which plants to grow) or natural selection (when nature decides which plants survive best).

Even though there are tons of wild and farmed coffee plants, only a few types are really important for making coffee to sell. This is because they have special traits, like being strong against diseases or growing lots of coffee beans. Farmers pick these special types to grow their crops. Choosing the right coffee type is super important for a farmer's success and for making delicious coffee.

On a bigger scale, the whole coffee industry relies on choosing the best coffee types. Most of the coffee we drink today comes from these specially chosen plants. So, picking the right coffee type is a big part of making sure coffee farming can continue for a long time.

Understanding Coffee Types

It can be a bit confusing to talk about different coffee types. To make it easier, here's how we'll use some words in this article:

  • Variety: This is a type of coffee plant that grew naturally. It's a bit different from the main species but still shares most of its features.
  • Cultivar: This is a type of coffee plant that people created through farming methods. You usually won't find these growing wild. Many of the coffee types we know, like Bourbon and Typica, are actually cultivars.

So, simply put: varieties are natural, and cultivars are made by people. We'll also use the word "breed" as a general term for any type of coffee plant when we don't need to be super specific.

A Brief History of Coffee Types

Before the late 1800s, almost all the coffee in the world came from a type called Arabica. But then, a plant sickness called coffee leaf rust (CLR) spread and ruined many coffee farms around the globe. This made many farmers look for other crops to grow.

Some countries stopped growing coffee almost completely. But Indonesia started growing Robusta coffee instead. Robusta plants grow a lot of beans and are very good at fighting off coffee leaf rust. The downside is that Robusta coffee often doesn't taste as good as Arabica.

In the early 1900s, farmers in East Java learned a lot about breeding Robusta coffee. This knowledge became very important for modern coffee breeding. That's because Robusta is the main source of traits that help coffee plants resist pests and diseases, which Arabica plants often don't have.

Before the mid-1900s, Arabica coffee breeding was simpler. Farmers mostly picked plants that grew well in their area, produced a lot of beans, and tasted good. But in the late 1970s and 1980s, different countries started special breeding programs. Their goal was to create Arabica types that could resist coffee leaf rust. These programs were a direct response to how serious the rust threat was. Thanks to these efforts, many important new coffee types have been created.

Choosing the Best Coffee Plants

Farmers have developed standards for the coffee plants they want to grow. Newer breeding methods have given farmers coffee types that produce more beans, fight off diseases better, and taste great. These traits are super important for a farmer to be successful. Here are some things a farmer might look for when choosing coffee plants:

  • Taste Quality: This is about how good the coffee beans taste. It's usually considered the most important trait.
  • Yield: This is how much coffee a plant produces. It's often measured by how many kilograms or tons of beans grow per area each year. Getting a high yield is a main goal for farmers.
  • Disease Resistance: Being able to fight off diseases has become a huge factor in choosing and breeding new coffee types. Farmers mostly focus on resistance to coffee leaf rust (CLR) and coffee berry disease (CBD), but also other local diseases.
  • Pest Resistance: While not usually bred for, some coffee types naturally resist pests like nematodes (tiny worms) and leaf miners (insects that tunnel through leaves). Robusta coffee is generally better at resisting pests than Arabica.
  • Small Plant Size: For people growing coffee indoors or farmers who want to fit more plants in a small space, smaller plants are better.
  • Caffeine Amount: Many people care about how much caffeine is in their coffee. Caffeine gives you energy, but too much can be bad.
  • Maturation Rate: This is how long it takes for a new plant to start growing coffee beans. Farmers usually want plants that produce beans quickly.

Main Coffee Species

Arabica Coffee

Arabica coffee made up about 61% of the world's coffee production between 2004 and 2010. It would be even higher if Arabica wasn't so easily affected by diseases. Arabica coffee has many different types, and each one has its own special qualities.

Robusta Coffee (C. canephora)

Canephora
Unroasted Robusta coffee beans.

Robusta coffee is mostly grown in Vietnam, which produces 97% of its coffee as Robusta.

There are also some unusual and very expensive Robusta coffees from Indonesia and the Philippines. These include kopi luwak, Kapéng Alamid, and Kahawa Kubing. These beans are collected from the droppings of the common palm civet (a small animal), whose digestive system gives the coffee a special taste.

In the Philippines, a notable Robusta type is Kahawa Sūg, also known as "Sulu coffee." It has been grown in the Sulu archipelago since the 1860s.

Other Coffee Species

While not as popular for selling as Arabica or Robusta, other types of coffee plants exist with unique varieties. These include Kapeng barako (Barako coffee), which is a type of Liberica coffee grown in the Philippines. It was brought there by the Spanish. The Philippines became the 4th largest coffee producer in the early 1800s, but then coffee rust ruined many crops.

Coffea charrieriana is a coffee plant found in Cameroon that naturally has no caffeine.

Scientists recently found Coffea stenophylla again in Sierra Leone. This type hadn't been seen in the wild since 1954. It's special because it can grow in warmer temperatures than Arabica and tastes better than Robusta.

Hybrid Coffee Types

Some coffee types are "hybrids," meaning they are a mix of two different coffee species.

Popular Coffee Cultivars

Name Species Region(s) Interesting Facts
Arusha C. arabica Mount Meru in Tanzania, and Papua New Guinea This might be a type of Typica or French Mission coffee.
Benguet C. arabica Philippines A Typica type grown in the Cordillera highlands of the northern Philippines since 1875.
Bergendal, Sidikalang C. arabica Indonesia These are Typica types that survived the leaf rust outbreak in the 1880s. Most other Typica in Indonesia were destroyed.
Bernardina C. arabica El Salvador Discovered in El Salvador, first thought to be Geisha. DNA tests showed it was a new type similar to those from Agaro in Ethiopia.
Blue Mountain C. arabica Blue Mountains in Jamaica. Also grown in Kenya, Hawaii, Haiti, Papua New Guinea (called PNG Gold) and Cameroon (called Boyo). A unique change in Typica, known to resist coffee berry disease.
Bourbon C. arabica Réunion, Rwanda, Latin America. The French planted coffee on Bourbon island (now Réunion) around 1708. It changed slightly and spread through Brazil and Latin America. It produces 20–30% more beans than Typica.
Catuai C. arabica Latin America This is a mix of Mundo Novo and Caturra, created in Brazil in the late 1940s.
Catimor Interspecific hybrid Latin America, Indonesia, India, Vietnam, China (Yunnan) A mix between Timor coffee and Caturra coffee. It was made in Portugal in 1959. In India, it's called Cauvery.
Caturra C. arabica Latin and Central America Developed from a natural change in Bourbon Red. It produces more beans, grows faster, and resists disease better than older Arabica types.
Charrier C. charrieriana Cameroon A newly found species from Cameroon that has no caffeine. It's not grown for sale yet.
Harar C. arabica Ethiopia From the Harar region of Ethiopia. Known for its complex, fruity taste like a dry red wine.
Sidamo C. arabica Ethiopia From the Sidamo region of Ethiopia.
Yirgacheffe C. arabica Ethiopia From the Yirgachefe district in Ethiopia.
French Mission C. arabica Africa This is actually Bourbon coffee planted in East Africa by French missionaries around 1897.
Geisha C. arabica Ethiopia, Tanzania, Costa Rica, Panama, Colombia, Peru Highly sought after and very expensive, especially from Boquete in Panama. It was originally from Gesha, Ethiopia.
Bonifieur C. arabica Guadeloupe Used to improve other coffees, some experts think it's one of the best in the world.
Kona C. arabica Hawaii Grown on the slopes of volcanoes in the Kona District of Hawaii. Coffee was first brought to the islands in 1825.
Java Interspecific hybrid Indonesia From the island of Java, Indonesia. This coffee was so popular that "java" became a slang word for coffee.
K7 C. arabica Africa A Kenyan type of French Mission Bourbon, chosen for its good taste.
Maragogipe C. arabica Latin America A natural change from Typica, first found in Maragogipe, Brazil. Known for its very large beans.
Maracaturra C. arabica Latin America A human-made mix of Caturra and Maragogype. It was bred to get the flavor of Maragogype with the higher yield of Caturra.
Mayagüez C. arabica Africa A Bourbon type grown in Rwanda.
Mocha C. arabica Yemen Yemeni coffee traded through the old port of Mocha. Not to be confused with the drink (coffee with chocolate).
Mundo Novo C. arabica Latin America A mix between Bourbon and Typica, created in the 1940s.
Orange, Yellow Bourbon C. arabica Latin America, Vietnam These are types of Bourbon that changed naturally to have orange or yellow beans.
Pacamara C. arabica Latin America A mix of Pacas (a Bourbon type) and Maragogype. It was bred in El Salvador in 1958 to get larger beans.
Pacas C. arabica Latin America A natural change in the Bourbon type, found in El Salvador in 1949.
Pache Colis C. arabica Latin America A mix of Pache Comum and Caturra. This type produces noticeably larger beans and rough leaves.
Pache Comum C. arabica Latin America A change in Typica, first found in Santa Rosa, Guatemala.
Ruiru 11 C. arabica Kenya Released in 1985 by the Kenyan Coffee Research Station. It resists disease well but doesn't taste as good as some other types.
S795 C. arabica India, Indonesia Probably the most common Arabica planted in India and Southeast Asia. Known for its balanced taste.
Sagada C. arabica Philippines A Typica type grown in Sagada and Besao, Mountain Province in the northern Philippines since the late 1800s.
Santos C. arabica Brazil This is usually a way to grade Brazilian coffee, not a specific type. It refers to coffee that passed through the port of Santos, known for higher quality.
Sarchimor Interspecific hybrid Costa Rica, India A mix of Costa Rican Villa Sarchi and Timor coffee. It's very resistant to leaf rust and stem borer because of its Timor parent.
Selection 9 (Sln 9) C. arabica India A mix of Ethiopian Tafarikela and Timor coffee.
SL28 C. arabica Kenya Chosen in Kenya from a drought-resistant type from Tanzania in 1931.
SL34 C. arabica Kenya Chosen in Kenya from the French Mission type for its good taste, though not as good as SL28. It doesn't resist CBD, CLR, or BBC.
Sulawesi Toraja Kalossi C. arabica Indonesia This is the S795 type, grown high up on the island of Sulawesi, Indonesia. Kalossi is the town where coffee is collected, and Toraja is the mountain area where it grows.
Sumatra Mandheling and Sumatra Lintong C. arabica Indonesia Mandheling is named after the Mandailing people in North Sumatra, Indonesia. Lintong is named after the Lintong district. These are regions with a special way of processing coffee, not specific types.
Timor, Arabusta Interspecific hybrid Indonesia Timor is a mix of two coffee species: Arabica and Robusta. It was found on the island of Timor around the 1940s and grown because it resists leaf rust.
Typica C. arabica Worldwide Typica came from Yemen. It was taken to India, then Indonesia by the Dutch, and the Philippines by the Spanish. It later went to the West Indies. Many new types have come from Typica.
Bugishu Interspecific hybrid Uganda While Uganda mostly grows Robusta, a good Arabica bean called Bugishu grows near the Sipi Falls area.
Brutte C. arabica An Arabica type bred in 2014 in South India. It grows at high altitudes and has more tannins and trigonelline.
Starmaya C. arabica Nicaragua The first F1 hybrid coffee tree that can be grown from a seed. It resists rust and tastes very good when grown high up.
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