Know your bean

Welcome to Nørden's Coffee Journey. This is where we go a step deeper and dress you well so that you can appear strong in the moment of serving. In this blog post, we zoom in on the coffee bean. 

The coffee bean

The origin of coffee beans is found in the exotic coffee plant Coffea, which includes around 60 different species. Here we also find the two types of coffee plants that supply coffee beans to the whole world; Arabica and Robusta. These plants thrive best in tropical climates with good heat, high humidity, and temperatures between 15-30°C. For optimal conditions, the soil should preferably be of volcanic origin. This makes the soil rich in nitrogen – an important nutrient for the growth of the coffee plant. 

The bean itself is the result of 30-35 weeks of flowering, which develops into coffee berries the size of small cherries. Coffee beans primarily consist of vegetable oil, carbohydrates and caffeine.

The Arabica bean / Coffee arabica

Arabica is a gentle and mild type of coffee, which represents 2/3 of the world's total coffee production. It is popular because it has a delicate, aromatic, and sour taste with notes of sweetness. Arabica beans have green-bluish color shades. They are oval, elongated, and have a shallow groove in the center of the bean. 

This type of bean is primarily grown in mountainous areas in Central and South America, where the temperature is between 15-25°C. The Arabica bean has a lower caffeine content than the Robusta bean.

Robusta / Coffee canephora

The robusta plant is grown primarily in Africa and Asia and makes up the remaining 1/3 of the world's coffee production. It thrives best in air layers up to 600 meters above sea level, where it can at the same time cope with very hot and humid environments - compared to the Arabica plant with temperatures above 30°C degrees.

The robusta bean has a rounded, irregular bean shape with yellow-green color nuances and a deep groove in the middle of the bean.

The Robusta bean is fuller, stronger, and sharper in taste than Arabica. With notes of chocolate, it leaves a long and persistent aftertaste. This type of bean contains twice as much caffeine as the Arabica bean - at the same time, it has a low acid content, which means that the Robusta bean is wrongly considered to be of poorer quality than Arabica. 

Coffee plantations with the Robusta bean produce a higher harvest yield than coffee plantations with the Arabica bean. The annual harvest yield per Robusta coffee tree is approx. 900 grams compared to approx. 700 grams per Arabica coffee tree.

The Art of Blending

At Lavazza, we have worked with The Art of Blending since 1895. Our Master Blenders are experts in blending the different bean types from different regions to create the ultimate cup of coffee. We start with the coffee's aroma, fullness, and taste. We then build the perfect composition, depending on whether the specific coffee needs to be strong in terms of body, aroma, or taste. 

From here springs our La Reserva de ¡TIERRA! range, where each ¡TIERRA! coffee has its own unique flavor profile. The profiles range from the aromatic Colombia 100% Washed Arabica bean from Colombia to the stronger Alteco, which consists of 60% Arabica beans from Central and South America and 40% Robusta beans from Africa.