The Coffea liberica tree grows up to 9 meters in height, producing larger fruits than those found on the Coffea arabica trees. It was brought to Indonesia to replace the Arabian trees killed by coffee rust in the late 19th century. It is still found in parts of Central and East Java and West Kalimantan. A rare and unique variety of coffee liberica can be found in a remote area of the Amazon rainforest in Guyana.
Liberica is also the main coffee species grown in the Philippines and Malaysia. The town of Lipa in Batangas Province became the country’s largest Arabica coffee producer in the 1880s, until the industry closed down due to coffee rust in the 1890s, killing almost all the arabica plants in the area and threatening the variety with extinction. As in Indonesia, the liberica bean was brought in to replace it. Today, Batangas and the neighboring province of Cavite are producers of a variety of liberica known as barako. In Malaysia, it is generally grown in the Malaysian coffee belt on the west coast of Johor. This is mainly due to the immigration of Javanese to Malaysia in the 19th century.
Liberica coffee beans are much larger than the most popular arabica and robusta beans. Due to its low characteristics and limited global supply, the cost of ordinary liberica grains is higher, with premium liberica grains having a higher price. The caffeine concentration of Libica coffee beans is the lowest among the three varieties, at 1.23 g/100 g, of which Arabica coffee is 1.61 g/100 g and Robusta coffee is 2.26 g/100 g.