57% of the coffee consumed worldwide comes from the Arabica plant. Arabica coffee is often mentioned as the counterpart to Robusta and is thus always compared. It's time to focus solely on Arabica and go on a quest for its origins.
Where does Arabica coffee come from?
Today, Arabica coffee is grown in approximately 60 countries. The plant originally comes from the Boma region, which is located in the far east of South Sudan, on the border with Ethiopia (Open Street Map)
Present-day Ethiopia and former Abyssinia were long considered the region of origin for the Arabica plant. The high plateaus reach altitudes of 1300 to 2000m above sea level. In 2021, scientists led by Aaron Davies, through research into the plant's genetics, discovered the region from which the first Arabica plants originated.
The high genetic diversity extends hundreds of kilometers westward into the Congo Basin. Coffee originally comes from forests and is accustomed to the proximity of trees – even today.
Only later, when coffee was cultivated for economic use, did people switch to intensive cultivation in densely planted plots.
The transformation from mixed to monoculture encouraged the spread of plant diseases, such as the notorious coffee rust, or roya.
Many myths surround the discovery of coffee – whether it was goats that first ate coffee cherries and then danced, or whether it was a monk, a prophet, or someone else, will never be conclusively proven.
Why is it called Arabica coffee?
Arabica coffee is so named because the Swedish naturalist Carl Linnaeus was mistaken. He was the first researcher to botanically classify "Arabica" coffee, thus laying the groundwork for modern botanical and zoological taxonomy.
He named the beans "Arabica" coffee because in Central Europe in the early 1700s, there was an association between coffee and the Arab world.
The Ottomans conquered the Yemeni highlands in 1530 and began coffee production in 1570. Subsequently, coffee reached the European metropolises of Amsterdam and London via the port of Mocha (al-Muchaa). The port of Mocha held a monopoly over the global coffee trade, and most of the coffee produced at the time originated from the Yemeni highlands.
"Mocha" was therefore the name for the coffee consumed in European metropolises. The first European traders appeared in Mocha around 1610 and brought back the coffee "from the Arabs" with the same name – Carl Linnaeus couldn't have known better and associated the coffee with its Arab background, henceforth naming it coffea arabica.
(Sources: Ted Fisher, "Making Better Coffee" and Stuart McCook, " (Fisher, McCook "Coffee is not forever")
Where does Arabica coffee grow today?
Today, coffee is grown in approximately 60 countries, all located within the so-called Coffee Belt around the equator. Between 23° north and 25° south of the equator, there are - today - semi-stable weather patterns that favor coffee cultivation. We discuss what it will be like in 2050 here.
The Coffee Belt includes coffee-producing countries such as Ivory Coast, Australia, Cape Verde, and China – who would have thought of them first? In terms of volume, these countries, except for China, are not very significant globally, but for the local economy and tradition, they sometimes play a major role. In Burundi, for example, coffee was long responsible for 80% of foreign currency inflow.
Brazil was, is, and remains by far the largest producer of Arabica coffee, producing almost four times as much coffee as Colombia in the 2023/24 season. In Honduras, coffee production is growing, making the country the largest producer of Arabica coffee in Central America.
Peru and Mexico primarily produce a large amount of double-certified Fairtrade-Organic coffee, while in Nicaragua, volumes have been shrinking for several years. China is now among the top ten, with growth increasing by up to 15% annually since 2015.
What is the share of Arabica coffee in global coffee volume?
Many still believe that Arabica accounts for 70% of global coffee production, with Canephora (Robusta) playing a minor role at 30%. This is incorrect.
In the 2023/24 season, an estimated 102.2 million 60kg bags of Arabica coffee and 75.8 million bags of Robusta coffee will be produced. This is a ratio of 57.4% to 42.6% for a total of 178 million 60kg bags of coffee produced, combining Arabica and Robusta.
57.4% of the global coffee supply in the 2023/24 season is Arabica, and 42.6% is Robusta.
33.2% of globally produced coffee – Arabica and Robusta combined – consists of dry-processed naturals from Brazil. Brazil thus produces almost as much Arabica coffee as positions 2-10 combined (see table above).
What does Arabica coffee taste like?
Somewhat "traditionally," the taste of Arabica coffee is always viewed in relation to Robusta coffee – but does that even make sense? Both are types of coffee, but red wine is not compared to white wine, nor are apples to pears, or plums to apricots.
The species alone hardly justifies a sensory comparison. Additionally, Arabica coffees undergo such a strong flavor transformation depending on the post-harvest process or preparation method that they can barely be sensorially attributed to a region anymore.
Certainly, there are certain commonalities in country and regional profiles that indicate the coffee's origin, but here too, there's no rule without exception.
We discuss how coffee flavors are influenced by fermentations in this video.
In general, however, Arabica coffees can be said to be extremely diverse in taste, which is also reflected in the common flavor wheel.
From chocolatey-nutty coffee from Brazil, to citrusy-balanced washed coffees from Central America, to floral-fruity coffees from Ethiopia, to nutty-citrusy coffees in India and bitter-heavy coffees in Indonesia – as rough as this categorization may sound, it often holds true in reality, even if we are constantly surprised by how little uniform such flavor perceptions are.
What is needed for high-quality Arabica coffee?
Arabica coffee is not inherently a guarantee of good taste, although this is often implied ("100% Arabica"). Nor is it an indication of how the coffee will taste, as it depends on the following five criteria: care, processing, temperatures, variety, and growing conditions.
The basis for quality Arabica and Robusta coffee is care. The difficult-to-define and much more mystifying than explanatory "terroir" is just as little responsible as a microclimate that is not naturally given.
Good coffee is a man-made product and not a whim of nature or a result of higher powers.
The pyramid shows how important care and processing are and form a basis for what already makes coffee appear good to very good. The factors of temperature, variety, and microclimate/growing conditions then separate the very good from the good coffees.
100% Arabica Coffee: What's the truth?
Even today, coffee packaging is labeled "100% Arabica," which, firstly, does not do justice to the complexity of the product, secondly, provides no added information, and thirdly, leaves coffee drinkers in the dark.
The distinction between species alone is also no longer up-to-date. The coffee plant is subject to climate change, and so we should expand our vocabulary to understand and describe the coffee of the future. Varieties and new breeds are becoming increasingly important, so in the future, we should speak more about varieties and no longer about species.
Researchers have been working intensively for years to bring new crosses from the laboratory to the field and to scale them up. The simplified distinction between Arabica and non-Arabica (e.g., Robusta) falls far too short here.
