Arabica beans are often considered superior in taste. Arabica tends to have a smoother, sweeter taste, with flavour notes of chocolate and sugar. They often also have hints of fruits or berries. Robusta, on the other hand, has a stronger, harsher and more bitter taste, with grainy or rubbery overtones.
According to the International Coffee Organisation, more than 60 per cent of world coffee production comes from Arabica cultivators. This was the type of bean that started off the whole coffee story in Ethiopia, and it still grows best in higher elevations. Glorious in smell, Arabica flowers appear only after a couple of years and produce ellipsoidal fruits, inside which are two flat seeds known as the coffee beans.
An Arabica shrub grows up to 15 feet (5m) tall but is usually pruned to about 6 feet (2m) to make it more commercially viable. Arabica has two sets of chromosomes, so it is capable of self-pollination. This means that it remains generally stable as a species because cross-pollination is less probable.
Of the two most common varieties of Arabica coffee beans, Typica was the first variety to be discovered. It is therefore regarded as the original coffee of the New World. It is also a low-yielding variety that is valued for its excellent cup quality
