By now, you know we love our Colombian coffee beans. And our Mexican. And Guatemalan. And Ethiopian. And wherever our Signature Series is from in any given month. There's great coffee everywhere!
Did you know that there are three common coffee species? They are all part of the Rubiaceae coffea family, and they consist of Coffea arabica (Arabica), Coffea canephora (Robusta), and Coffea liberica (Liberica).Â
You might also recall that we exclusively use Arabica beans, but some varieties of those beans - like Castillo, which is found in our Colombian beans from Pitalito and Huila - share a genetic heritage with Robusta. Cross-breeding of coffee beans over the centuries all across the world has led us to our current state of coffee, but pretty much every variety can be traced back to one of the three primary species.
Below is a great illustrative example from the excellent Coffee Roaster's Handbook by Len Brault (Callisto Publishing LLC, 2020). If you're interested, you can purchase a copy of the book on Amazon here!
We put together a little grid of our three primary blended roasts and the varieties of coffee beans from each region that go into those roasts. Within the Arabica line, most of our coffee is either of the Typica or Bourbon variety, both of which thrive in high elevation and are highly sought after in the specialty coffee space.
The history of coffee is fascinating, and there's always something new to learn. Happy sipping!
