In earlier times, coffee was a drink for rich people. Today the enjoyment of drinking coffee is affordable to all. On average, every Briton drinks 1 cup of coffee per day. Hence the regular coffee drinker has sometimes a tough time deciding on which coffee to drink. There are 50 to 60 different types of coffee plants, although the majority of the world’s production stems directly from Brazil. Here are the most popular coffee varieties:

75 percent of the world’s coffee production is supplied by the Arabica coffee bean, which probably originated from Ethiopia but is now cultivated in Brazil and Colombia. Cultivating this type of coffee can be very challenging and demanding. These coffee plants need an even level and warm climate without any fluctuations in temperature.
Furthermore this coffee variety prefers to be cultivated in the highest of places, over 1300 meters, hence the designation “Mountain Coffee”. To compensate for the effort, the Arabica coffee bean delivers a special, premium rich and full Aroma.

The name already suggests this: This type of coffee plant is less sensitive and requires less time and effort to grow compared to Arabica coffee beans. About 24 percent of world production is made up of Robusta coffee. Most of it originates in African countries, but some also originates in Indonesia.

Some optical clues help to differentiate Robusta coffee from Arabica: it’s beans have a straight cut in the middle, while Arabica has a waved one. Another difference is that Robusta contains double the amount of caffeine than Arabica.

In a coffee shop one often has a wide range of different prepartion methods. Listed below in the chart are the most popular methods:

* Cafè au Lait can also be labeled as the following: Cafè Latte, Cafè con leche und Cafè cortado.

Traditionally, only a small amount of the retail price paid by consumers will stay within the country of origin, and an even lesser share with the coffee farmers and plantation workers. The Fair Trade initiative tries to improve the difficult economical conditions of all producers along the trading chain. It originated with coffee.