Facts & Types of Coffee

Facts of Coffee

Your body naturally produces a hormone called cortisol that helps you feel alert and awake. That is released according to your circadian rhythm, dictated by the time of the day. So, if you have a habit of drinking coffee when you first wake up, you may want to wait a bit longer so that your caffeine isn’t wasted during a time when cortisol is at its highest.
Coffee isn’t actually that dehydrating.


Great news! Caffeine was once thought to be a significant diuretic, but that’s actually not true. Unless it’s consumed in large quantities (more than 500 to 600 mg a day, or two coffees) there aren’t such negative effects. In fact, studies have shown that urine output isn’t significantly changed when a person drinks a caffeinated beverage, rather than something non-caffeinated like water. So, as long as you enjoy your coffee in moderation, there’s not much to worry about.
Like most great discoveries, 

coffee’s magical powers were first realized through the majesty of crazy goats.

According to legend, Ethiopian shepherds first realized the profound caffeinating effects of coffee when they noticed their goats started “dancing” after eating coffee berries.

Coffee can help you live a longer and healthier life.

Coffee contains lots of antioxidants (it's the biggest source of antioxidants in an average Western diet!) that help the body fight chemicals called “free radicals.” As a result, coffee drinkers are at a lower risk of diseases such as Parkinson’s Disease, Type II Diabetes, and Heart Disease. Here’s the thing, though: coffee drinkers are also more likely to have unhealthy habits such as smoking cigarettes, drinking alcohol heavily, and eating red meat, so the study shown above has been adjusted to show what could happen if these other factors weren’t in effect.

Coffee contains important nutrients you need to survive.

A single cup of coffee contains 11% of the daily recommended amount of Riboflavin (vitamin B2), 6% of Pantothenic Acid (vitamin B5), 3% of Manganese and Potassium, and 2% of Niacin and Magnesium.

Drinking coffee can help you burn fat.

Studies have shown that drinking caffeine can increase your metabolism 3 to 11%. It’s one of the few chemicals that can actually help with fat burning, so might as well drink up!

All of the coffee grown on the planet is from an area called “The Coffee Belt.”

The Coffee Belt contains all of the regions that have the conditions needed for coffee growing. Since the plants clearly require lots of sunshine and warmth, it’s pretty easy to say that this belt makes a good outline for the best tropical vacations, too!

Iced coffee is more expensive because it uses more resources.

From plastic cups to napkins to double brewing (re-brewing coffee a second time to make it stronger), the resources needed for iced coffee are more numerous (and expensive!) than hot coffee is. All of that adds up, and it causes establishments to charge more for their iced drinks than their hot-beverage counterparts.

Caffeine is actually crystals.

The buzz you feel after drinking coffee is actually from ingesting tiny 0.0016-inch crystals of caffeine. So small, yet so energizing!

Coffee is a red berry before it’s a bean.

Those berries you see right there? Those are coffee berries. They grow on trees!

Caffeine starts working quickly.

It only takes ten minutes to start feeling the effects of caffeine after you take a sip of coffee, so drink up!

Coffee can help prevent Alzheimer’s and dementia.

Several studies have shown that coffee drinkers are up to 65% less likely to get Alzheimer’s Disease, which is a leading cause of dementia.

Black Ivory coffee is the most expensive kind of coffee on Earth, and it’s made from poop.

The most expensive coffee in the world is made from elephant dung, and it’s called Black Ivory coffee. It costs $50 per cup. Luwak, aka civet, coffee is made by feeding coffee beans to mongoose and then using its feces. It costs $160 per pound.

Coffee is good for your liver.

People who drink four cups of coffee a day are 80% less likely to develop cirrhosis, a condition that develops from several diseases affecting the liver.

The first webcam in the world was made for coffee.

In 1991, a group of Cambridge University scientists set a camera on their work building’s coffee pot, streaming the footage live on the web so that they would be able to see if the pot was empty or not, saving themselves the disappointment of a coffee-less trip. The picture above is the actually from that first camera.

Coffee houses were banned in England because that's where all the cool kids were drinking.

Okay, kind of. In 1675 King Charles II banned coffee shops because he thought that that’s where people were meeting to conspire against him.

Caffeine improves your performance when working out.

Caffeine increases your levels of adrenaline, and releases fatty acids from fat tissues, leading to a better physical performance by those who consume caffeine before working out.

Coffee varieties

Coffee varieties are the diverse subspecies derived through selective breeding or natural selection of coffee plants. While there is tremendous variability encountered in both wild and cultivated coffee plants, there are a few varieties and cultivars that are commercially important due to various unique and inherent traits such as disease resistance and fruit yield. These unique traits are what producers use to select breeds when developing crops. Therefore, at a micro level, breed selection is critical to the success of a producer and is one of the key components of cup quality.

Variety: This rank of taxa delineates differences between plants that are smaller than in subspecies but larger than forms. A variety retains most of the characteristics of the species, but differs in some way.

Cultivar: Any variety produced by horticultural or agricultural techniques and not normally found in natural populations; a cultivated variety. Most of the varieties we know in specialty coffee are really cultivars. Bourbon and Typica are some of the most widely known cultivars.

Arabica Varieties and Cultivars

According to The International Trade Centre, Arabica coffee accounted for roughly 61 per cent of the world's coffee production between 2004 - 2010. It would be higher if Arabica were not as susceptible to disease as it is.Coffee from the species C. arabica has many different varieties, each with unique characteristics. Some well-known arabica coffees include:

Name	Species	Region(s)	Comments
Arusha	arabica	Mount Meru in Tanzania, and  Papua New Guinea	either a Typica variety or a French Mission.
Bergendal, Sidikalang	arabica	Indonesia	Both are Typica varieties which survived the leaf rust outbreak of the 1880s; most of the other Typica in Indonesia was destroyed.
Blue Mountain	arabica	Blue Mountains region of Jamaica.  Also grown in Kenya, Hawaii, Haiti,  Papua New Guinea (where it is known as PNG Gold) and  Cameroon (where it is known as Boyo).	A unique mutation of Typica, known to have some resistance to coffee berry disease.
Bourbon	arabica	Réunion, Rwanda, Latin America.	Around 1708 the French planted coffee on the island of Bourbon (now called Réunion) in the middle of the Indian Ocean, all probably from the same parent stock – the plant the Dutch gave them. Unsurprisingly, it mutated slightly and was planted throughout Brazil in the late 1800s and eventually spread through Latin America. Bourbon produces 20–30% more fruit than Typica varieties. El Salvador is known as the Bourbon Country.
Catuai	arabica	Latin America	This is a hybrid of Mundo Novo and Caturra bred in Brazil in the late 1940s.
Catimor	Interspecific hybrid	Latin America, Indonesia,  India, China (Yunnan)	This is cross between Timor coffee and Caturra coffee. It was created in Portugal in 1959. In India, this cultivar goes by the name Cauvery.
Caturra	arabica	Latin and Central America	Developed from two cultivars that originated by natural mutation of Bourbon Red, originally a tall coffee shrub, found in the Serra do Caparaó. It produces a higher yield than Bourbon, due to the plant being shorter and with less distance between the branches, matures more quickly, and is more disease resistant than older, traditional arabica varieties. Its mutation is not unique; it led to the formation of the Pacas variety in El Salvador (from Bourbon) and the Villa Sarchi in Costa Rica (from Bourbon). Genetically it is very similar to Bourbon although it produces a poorer cup quality, mainly due to the variety yielding more.
Charrier	charrieriana	Cameroon	This is a newly found species from Cameroon. It has gained some press recently due to its caffeine-free nature. Not yet grown commercially, but it probably will be.
Colombian	arabica	Colombia	Coffee was first introduced to the country of Colombia in the early 1800s. Today Maragogipe, Caturra, Typica and Bourbon cultivars are grown. When Colombian coffee is freshly roasted it has a bright acidity, is heavy in body and is intensely aromatic. Colombia accounts for about 12% of the coffee market (by value) in the world, third in volume after Vietnam and Brazil.
Ethiopian Harar	arabica	Ethiopia	From the region of Harar, Ethiopia. Known for its complex, fruity flavor that resembles a dry red wine. All three Ethiopian varieties are trademarked names with the rights owned by Ethiopia.
Ethiopian Sidamo	arabica	Ethiopia	From the Sidamo (now Oromia) region of Ethiopia as well. All three Ethiopian varieties are trademarked names with the rights owned by Ethiopia.
Ethiopian Yirgacheffe	arabica	Ethiopia	From the Yirgachefe district in the Gedeo Zone of the Southern Nations, Nationalities, and People's Region of Ethiopia. All three Ethiopian varieties are trademarked names with the rights owned by Ethiopia.
French Mission	arabica	Africa	French Mission is actually Bourbon that was planted in East Africa by French Missionaries around 1897.
Geisha / Gesha	arabica	Ethiopia, Tanzania, Costa Rica, Panama, Colombia, Peru	Geisha or Gesha variety, grown in the highlands of Boquete in Chiriquí Province, Panama, highly sought after at auction, achieving high prices. Originally from the village of Gesha, Ethiopia. It was planted in the 1950s as a rust-resistant crop and rediscovered in the early 2000s. The most expensive varietal at coffee auctions, fetching $350.25USD in 2013.
Guadeloupe Bonifieur	arabica	Guadeloupe
Hawaiian Kona	arabica	Hawaii	Grown on the slopes of Hualalai and Mauna Loa in the Kona District on the Big Island of Hawaii. Coffee was first introduced to the Islands by Chief Boki, the Governor of Oahu, in 1825.
Java	Interspecific hybrid	Indonesia	From the island of Java, in Indonesia. This coffee was once so widely traded that "java" became a slang term for coffee. Java encompasses a regional style, not a cultivar of coffee.
K7	arabica	Africa	A Kenyan selection of French Mission Bourbon selected at Legelet Estate in Muhoroni, Kenya. Selected based on cupping trials.
Maragogipe	arabica	Latin America	Maragogipe ('y') is considered to be a natural mutation from Typica. It was first discovered near Maragogipe, in Brazil's state Bahia. Maragogype is well known for producing big beans.
Maragaturra	arabica	Latin America	Maragaturra is a man-made hybrid plant between Caturra and Maragogype.|It was first bred in order to capture the flavor profile of Maragogype with the higher yield and efficiency of the Caturra Varietal.
Mayagüez	arabica	Africa	A Bourbon cultivar grown in Rwanda.
Mocha	arabica	Yemen	Yemeni coffee traded through the once major port of Mocha. Not to be confused with the preparation style (coffee with cocoa).
Mundo Novo	arabica	Latin America	Mundo Novo is a hybrid between Bourbon and Typica, crossed in the 1940s.
Orange, Yellow Bourbon	arabica	Latin America	Red Bourbon and Orange Bourbon are types of Bourbon that have been selected from spontaneous mutation.
Pacamara	arabica	Latin America	Pacamara is a hybrid between the Bourbon mutation Pacas and Maragogype. It was bred in El Salvador in 1958 probably to achieve a Typica variety that produces larger beans.
Pacas	arabica	Latin America	A natural mutation of the Bourbon variety found in El Salvador in 1949.
Pache Colis	arabica	Latin America	Pache Colis is a hybrid between Pache Comum and Caturra. This variety produces distinctly larger fruit and roughly textured foliage.
Pache Comum	arabica	Latin America	Is a mutation of Typica first found in Santa Rosa, Guatemala.
Ruiru 11	arabica	Kenya	Ruiru 11 was released in 1985 by the Kenyan Coffee Research Station. While the variety is generally disease resistant, it produces a lower cup quality than K7, SL28 and 34.
S795	arabica	India, Indonesia	Probably the most commonly planted Arabica in India and Southeast Asia, known for its balanced cup and subtle flavour notes of mocca. Released during the 1940s, it is a cross between the Kents and S.288 varieties.
Santos	arabica	Brazil	Brazil Santos is usually used as a grading term for Brazilian coffee rather than a variety of Arabica. The name refers to the port in Brazil where coffee passed through, and was regarded as higher quality than "Brazilian coffee". Brazilian Santos is usually of the Bourbon variety.
Sarchimor	Interspecific hybrid	Costa Rica, India	A hybrid between the Costa Rican Villa Sarchi and the Timor variety. Because of its Timor parent, Sarchimor is quite resistant to leaf rust disease and stem borer. As well as Costa Rica, it is grown in India.
Selection 9 (Sln 9)	arabica	India	A hybrid between the Ethiopian Tafarikela and the Timor variety.
SL28	arabica	Kenya	A selection, by Scott Labs in Kenya from the Tanganyika Drought Resistant variety from northern Tanzania in 1931. Excellent flavour, commonly blackcurrant acidity.
SL34	arabica	Kenya	Selected by Scott Labs from the French Mission variety grown in Kenya. Selected for its superior cup quality (although inferior to SL28), but not resistant to CBD, CLR or BBC.
Sulawesi Toraja Kalossi	arabica	Indonesia	Actually the S795 varietal, grown at high altitudes on the island of Sulawesi (formerly Celebes), Indonesia. Kalossi is the small town in central Sulawesi which serves as the collection point for the coffee and Toraja is the mountainous area in which the coffee is grown. Sulawesi exhibits a rich, full body, well-balanced acidity and is multi-dimensional in character. Sulawesi itself is not a cultivar of coffee.
Sumatra Mandheling and  Sumatra Lintong	arabica	Indonesia	Mandheling is named after the Mandailing people located in North Sumatra, Indonesia. The name is the result of a misunderstanding by the first foreign purchaser of the variety, and no coffee is actually produced in the "Mandailing region". Lintong on the other hand, is named after the Lintong district, also located in North Sumatra. This is not a specific cultivar, but rather a region with a specific processing style.
Timor, Arabusta	Interspecific hybrid	Indonesia	Timor is not actually a variety of coffea arabica, but a hybrid of two species of coffee; coffea arabica and coffea canephora (also called Robusta). It was found on the island of Timor around the 1940s and it was cultivated because of its resistance to leaf rust (which most arabica coffee is susceptible to). It is called Hybrido de Timor in the Americas and Tim Tim or Bor Bor in Indonesia. Another hybrid between the two species is called Arabusta but generally only found in Africa.
Typica	arabica	Worldwide	Typica originated from Yemeni stock, taken first to Malabar, India, and later to Indonesia by the Dutch. It later made its way to the West Indies to the French colony at Martinique. Typica has genetically evolved to produce new characteristics, often considered new varietals: Criollo (South America), Arabigo (Americas), Kona (Hawaii), Pluma Hidalgo (Mexico), Garundang (Sumatra), Blue Mountain (Jamaica, Papua New Guinea), San Bernardo & San Ramon (Brazil), Kents & Chickumalgu (India)
Uganda	Interspecific hybrid		Although it mostly produces Robusta coffee, there is a quality Arabica bean grown there known as Bugishu around the Sipi Falls area.
Brutte	arabica		Variety of coffee (arabica) Bred in 2014 in the south of India in g.Madras, 1996 Chennai Tamil Nadu. Grown at an altitude of 1500 m above sea level, which in itself is a good indicator. Differ by more quantitative tannin to 14 -15% and trigonelline 1.5 - 1.7%.

Robusta Varietise

Vietnam is the world's largest Robusta producer, with Robusta accounting for 97% of Vietnam's coffee output. While not separate varieties of bean, unusual and very expensive robustas are the Indonesian Kopi Luwak and the Philippine "Kapéng Alamid". The beans are collected from the droppings of the common palm civet, whose digestive processes give it a distinctive flavor.

Other Varietise

Although not as commercially viable as Arabica or Robusta, other species of coffee exist and contain unique varieties. These include Kapeng barako or Café Baraco, (English: Barako coffee), a Liberica. variety grown in the Philippines, particularly in the provinces of Batangas and Cavite. It was introduced during the period of Spanish colonization and the Philippines quickly rose to become the 4th largest producer of coffee in the early 19th century. However, production was cut short due to "coffee rust" infestation.