Coffee berries and seeds. Each red berry
contains two seeds.
Coffee Beans
Arabica and Robusta Coffees Coffee beans
are the seeds of two species of a tropical
relative of the gardenia. Coffea arabica, a 15
ft/5 m tree that is native to the cool highlands
of Ethiopia and the Sudan, produces what are
known as “arabica” beans; and Coffea
canephora, a larger tree native to hotter, more
humid West Africa, produces “robusta” beans.
About two-thirds of the beans in international
trade are arabicas, which develop a more
complex and balanced flavor than the
robustas. They contain less caffeine (less than
1.5% by weight of the dry bean, vs. 2.5% for
robustas), less phenolic material (6.5% vs.
10%), and more oil (16% vs. 10%) and sugar