Other species (4)
- Arabica vs Robusta — The two species that make up almost all the world’s coffee, compared on the things that actually differ — chromosomes, caffeine, sugar and fat, where each will grow, what each is worth, and which one the competitions are built around.
- Excelsa — The fourth coffee — a big drought-tolerant tree from the Lake Chad basin, folded into Liberica in 2006 and split back out as its own species in 2025, sold in tiny quantities for its dried-fruit, spice and dark-chocolate cup.
- Liberica — The third coffee species — a giant, low-altitude tree from West Africa that briefly rivalled Arabica in the 1880s, collapsed, and survives today mostly in the Philippines and Malaysia as a bold, jackfruit-scented cup.
- Robusta — The second coffee species — a hardy, high-caffeine African plant that grows where Arabica cannot, supplies most of the world’s instant coffee, gave breeders their rust resistance, and is only now being cupped as specialty.