How to Find Your Perfect Cup of Coffee: A Comprehensive Guide to Understanding Coffee from Farm to Cup.

Calling all coffee drinkers, aficionados, and addicts.

Here at the Coffee Mountain Inn, we take pride in our namesake. Not only do we grow our own beans and work with the farmer’s co-op in Santa Fe to bring attention to the incredible coffee produced in these hills, we consider it our sacred duty to spread our love and passion for coffee (and all that goes into it) throughout the world.

We thought we’d start with the beginning and the end and everything in between, with explaining why different cups of coffee taste the way they do.

There are a million factors that influence the taste of your coffee but there are four big ones. The species of the bean, the way it’s processed, the way it’s roasted, and the way it’s brewed.

In this four part series, we’ll take the wonderful and mysterious process that goes into a delicious cup of Joe and break it down step by step so you’re equipped to wade into the dizzy world of coffee

Knowing a little bit about each of these areas will not only let you appreciate your sacred beverage that much more, it’ll help you find the perfect combination of variables for your taste buds.

At the end of the day, you owe it to yourself and your friends to experiment with all the different variables, from robusto beans and wet processing to light roasts and aeropresses.

Let’s get started down the rabbit hole.

Part 1: Arabica vs. Robusta

Whether you drink coffee for the morning energy boost, the robust and rich flavors or simply for the morning ritual, by drinking coffee we are all ingesting caffeine, but do you know how much?

(Spoiler alert) The cup of coffee with the MOST caffeine would be a cold brew using dry processed, lightly roasted Robusta beans.

Let me explain.

From the average coffee drinkers view there are two major species of coffee: Arabica and Robusta.

The average Arabica plant looks like a small tree or large shrub with dark-green, oval leaves and (if it is harvest season) the branches will be lined with bright red, oval, “cherries” that house the precious coffee beans. The plants usually grow between twelve and twenty feet tall (3.7–6 meters), which puts most the cherries out of reach and notoriously difficult for farmers to harvest.

The Robusta species, on the other hand, is a shorter plant, which makes their fruit far easier to pick. The plants are also significantly hardier than Arabica plants, allowing them to grow at a variety of elevations. The Robusta plant is also significantly more resilient to insects and other pests, lessening the need for farmers to use chemicals and pesticides.

Now to juicy stuff… how does species affect the taste of the bean?

While there are numerous varieties of Arabica that all have slightly different taste profiles, the general consensus is that Arabica beans tend to have a softer and more acidic taste with tones of sweet fruit and berries.

Robusta on the other hand has a much stronger, harsher flavor with a robust body, grain-like overtones and nutty aftertaste. Robusta also has nearly twice the amount of caffeine as Arabica.

If you are a purest and only want to drink one species of coffee you would be tasked with the difficult decision of prioritizing taste or caffeine. Some brands boast that they contain 100% Arabica, but according to Celestino (a local Panamanian coffee producer and guide) “100% Arabica is like drinking water. It lacks the body and the caffeine needed to make a good, strong cup of coffee.” On the other hand, brands that contain primarily Robusta beans are generally less desirable due to the harsher taste, but are beloved by caffeine hounds.

The locals in Santa Fe, Panama like to live life to the fullest and don’t believe in having to make the choice between flavor and caffeine. At the Santa Fe Coffee Cooperative (a local co-op owned and run by local, small-scale farmers) they have developed a blend of Arabica and Robusta (60/40) that brews a beautiful cup of coffee with a strong and smooth flavor that both satisfies your taste buds and gives you the needed jolt of caffeine to get you through the day.

If you’re interested in learning more directly from the source or seeing the process step-by-step, stop by the Coffee Mountain Inn’s Coffee Tour which let’s you witness (and taste!) the coffee process from plant to mug!

To learn about how the next step of coffee processing factors into the ultimate flavor, stay tuned for our next post!