There are two types of plants that account for the majority of commercial coffee sold worldwide, Arabica and Robusta. The story of Arabica and Robusta coffee beans is really a story about quantity verses quality.

The flavor difference between Arabica and Robustus coffee beans is enormous! Arabica coffee beans are the world’s most flavorful bean. The list of Arabica beans reads like a book of “who’s who” of the coffee world: Costa Rican Terrazzo, Guatemala, Kenyan AA, Sumatra Mandhelind, and Tanzanian Peaberry, just to name a few.

Arabica coffee beans also contain only half the caffeine of Robusta, which means you can enjoy more cups throughout the day without getting the jitters. If you are looking for quality over quantity, Arabica beans are the choice for you.

Robusta coffee beans constitute the majority of low quality mass-produced, pre-ground coffee blends, and freeze-dried coffee grounds. You can buy a lot of Robusta coffee beans for your money but they tend to be bitter and bland.

At Java Central, we offer only high quality Arabica beans.

There are several different roast levels for coffee. The most common are: City roast (Light), Full City roast (medium), Vienna roast (dark), and French roast (very dark).

What is the difference? Imagine your coffee was a loaf of bread: if you bake it until it is light brown it would be a city roast, until it was a dark brown it would be a full city roast, and if you bake it until it is very dark brown and crunchy it would be like the French roast.

What does this mean in coffee terms? Well, a city roast is good to distinguish different coffees apart. You can taste the subtle difference of various origins. You get a good coffee flavor without any burnt or carmalized coffee flavors.

Vienna roast is much darker than City roast. The coffee is roasted longer, allowing the natural sugars to caramelize. This caramelization masks some of the other subtle flavors in the coffee. A cup of coffee roasted to Vienna has a bolder, stronger flavor than the lighter roasts. You can taste more of the caramelized flavor in the coffee than the natural flavor.

Because caffeine is destroyed by heat, the lighter the coffee is roasted, the more caffeine is left inside the bean.

Flavored coffee can vary quite differently from place to place. Many coffee roasters choose to use low quality coffee beans, usually the cheapest Mexican or panama coffee they can buy. In some cases, they even choose to use poor quality Robustus beans in their coffee.

At Java Central, we use only 100% premium Columbian coffee for our flavored coffee. This ensures that you not only get a unique taste from the flavoring, but it is also backed by an excellent cup of coffee.

For flavored coffee, we roasts 100% Columbian coffee to a city roast (medium). After the coffee has cooled down to room temperature, the coffee is then flavored with specially formulated extract for coffee beans. This is similar to an extract used in cooking. This ensures that the flavor soaks up in the beans to give the coffee a slight flavoring. The extract contains no artificial sugars, to allow a great taste without any added sweetness.

Arabica Plant

Arabica Beans

Robusta Beans