Which Coffee Beans to Use

Choosing the Right Coffee Beans

The flavour you get from brewing ground coffee beans may depend not only on the type of plant the bean came from, but also in which region of the planet that coffee plant was grown. One type of coffee plant, the Kona, is linked to only one place on Earth, the Big Island of Hawaii. Geographical source greatly affects the flavour derived from the Arabica type, while the Robusta bean seems to have the same taste no matter where it is grown in the world. For more about coffee beans from different countries, see our page on coffee around the world here.

Different Coffee Plants and their Beans

There are several different coffee plants that provide us with the coffee beans used in brewing coffee.

Kona

The Kona plant, grown only in the Kona Districts of Hawaii. creates one of the most expensive types of coffee in the world. First introduced to Hawaii in 1828 from Brazilian cuttings, the Kona coffee plant is nurtured and harvested on over eight hundred small family farms that average about five acres each. Kona coffee blends usually contain only the minimum legal requirement of 10% Kona beans mixed with beans from other countries; "true" Kona is labeled 100% Kona. The taste of Kona coffee is very strong and the aroma powerful.

Robusta

The Robusta plant, also called the Canephora, while accounting for 40% of world coffee production, is at the other end of the quality scale from Kona. Though easy to grow, resistant to disease and weather and harvested world-wide, all Robusta beans has an astringent woody taste and are often blended with Kona or Arabica to give a kick to the coffee flavour. You might purchase Robusta beans to experiment with the flavour of your own coffee blend. Uganda, Vietnam, India, Brazil and Indonesia are the major sources for Robusta beans.

Arabica

The Arabica plant creates coffee with a very delicate flavor that varies by the country in which it is grown. Arabica from Indonesia creates a spicy coffee, while Arabica from Jamaica is known for it slack of bitterness and mild flavour. Java coffee beans from Indonesia creates a coffee with a strong sweet flavour -- the island of java is also the source for the most expensive coffee beans in the world, the kopi luwak variety, where coffee beans are processed through the digestive tracts of civets.