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Coffee is one of the most widely consumed beverages in the world.  In the United States and Europe, more coffee is consumed than water.  This coffee is prepared from seeds that are usually referred to as beans.  They come from the coffee plant wherein they usually grow in pairs.  In fact it is quite rare for just 1 bean to be found growing in the plant.  When this does happen, these beans are called pea-berries or carcoli beans.  These pea-berries have a more prominent flavor than other Arabica beans, therefore they are in high demand and so they are more expensive. 

The coffee plant belongs to the Genus, Coffea, which contains approximately 25 species.  The most prominent specimens include:

1. Kaffa is an older species of Coffea Arabica.  It originated in Ethiopia where it grows like a tree that can reach 30 feet tall, but is seldom allowed to grow past 15 feet tall.
2. Coffea Canephora (Robusta), which is a shrub like plant, and it is also a newer species that more than likely originated in Uganda. 
3. Coffea Liberica is indigenous to Liberia.
4. Coffea Esliaca is more than likely indigenous to the Sudan.

Regardless of what type of coffee you are attempting to grow, the plant will grow best under the shade of natural vegetation.  It likes to have between 1800 and 2000 mm of rain and a temperature that is between 21 and 21.9C.  The plant prefers its soil to be deep, sandy and coarse.  However, there needs to be  good aeration and moderate infiltration.  The pH level should be between 5.0 to 6.0.  It is also important for there to be  nitrogen, potassium and phosphorous present in the soil.  For this reason, coffee plants are usually found in tropical rain forests. 

Since Brazil is a country that is primarily a rain forest, it is no wonder why the area is the world's largest producer and exporter of coffee.  Recently, however, there have been a lot of Robusta coffee beans coming out of Vietnam.  These Robusta coffee beans are actually the ones that are preferred by the large industrial houses, multinational roasters and instant coffee producers.  This is because these coffee beans are cheaper. 

The 2 most common types of coffee beans are:

1. Arabica coffees are named after the ports from which they were exported (i.e. Java comes from Indonesia and Mocha comes from Yemen).  Unfortunately, this species is more susceptible to disease and thus they are not nearly as profitable to grow.  Nevertheless, a lot of people will tell you that Arabica coffees have a better taste than robusta coffees. The flavor actually depends upon where they are grown though.  These beans are grown in 3 main regions: Latin America, East Africa/Arabia and Asia/Pacific.  Therefore, each reach provides these coffee beans with their own distinctive characteristics of flavor, aroma, body, and acidity levels.  Some other things that greatly impact how this coffee tastes are  processing and genetic subspecies or varieties of beans.  For instance, if Arabica coffee beans are processed while they are wet, they will have a more acidic taste.  However, these coffee beans can also have a citrus-like or earthy flavor and a berry-like or flowery aroma.
2. Robusta coffee beans have about 45% more caffeine than Arabica coffee beans.  However, they also have very little taste and the taste that it does have tends to be bitter.  These coffee beans also smell like "burnt rubber" or "wet cardboard."  So, while these beans are more cost effective, not a lot of people like their peculiar taste.  For this reason, these coffee beans undergo a steaming process, which makes them more palatable and suitable for coffee blends.  This is because the steaming process removes the undesirable flavors from these coffee beans.  Obviously this works quite well since some espresso blends actually use good quality Robusta coffee beans.  Not only is this done in order to decrease costs, but these coffee beans also produce a better "crema" (foamy head).

Today, coffee lovers are actually more origin specific about their coffee.  In other words, they know their coffee by the country, region, varietals and the estate that it was grown on and processed in.  Varietals is actually a botanical term referring to a taxonomic category rank below species.  It is not related to origin and so it is more specific than Arabica and Robusta.  Coffees that are made from the beans of a single varietal are generally referred to as such.  Sometimes, the name of the region is actually added onto this varietal to give it distinctive branding.  For instance, Rwanda Blue Bourbon is a coffee that is made from a single varietal which is found in Rwanda.  As you can see, there truly is an art to coffee today.