Arabica, robusta and Liberica are the three coffee species the world drinks. Arabica is bright, sweet, and dominates specialty coffee. Robusta is stronger in caffeine and harsher in the cup, grown mostly for instant coffee and espresso blends. Liberica is the rare third: heavier in body, a little lower in caffeine than arabica, and grown mainly in Southeast Asia. A 2025 Kew-led study puts current world output of Liberica and Excelsa at probably under 1,000 tonnes, about 0.01 per cent of coffee exports.
Most comparisons stop at the first two. The third is the one we roast.
The three species, side by side
| Arabica | Robusta | Liberica | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Species | Coffea arabica | Coffea canephora | Coffea liberica |
| Share of world production | About 60 per cent | Most of the rest | About 0.01 per cent of exports, with Excelsa (Kew, 2025) |
| The cup | Bright, sweet, complex | Heavy, bitter, dense crema | Full-bodied, low, floral when well made |
| Caffeine | Moderate | The highest, often cited as double arabica | A little below arabica |
| Bean | Small, flat oval | Smaller, rounded | Large, asymmetric |
| The tree | 3 to 4 metres, cool highlands | Hardy, hot lowlands | To 9 metres, rust-resistant |
| Grown mainly in | Latin America, East Africa | Vietnam, Brazil, Indonesia | Malaysia, the Philippines, Indonesia |
| Mostly used for | Specialty and filter coffee | Instant coffee, espresso blends | Traditional kopi, and now specialty |
Arabica, in brief
The species specialty coffee is built on. It grows best between roughly 1,000 and 2,000 metres, in cool air, and repays the trouble with the brightness and sweetness that thirty years of coffee fashion have prized. Everything from a Kenyan berry bomb to a delicate washed Ethiopian is arabica.
Its weakness is fragility. A narrow temperature band, a long history with leaf rust, and a warming climate steadily shrinking the land that suits it.
Robusta, in brief
Coffea canephora is the workhorse. It crops heavily at low altitude, shrugs off heat and disease, and carries roughly twice arabica's caffeine. The cup is blunt: heavy, bitter, short on sweetness, with the dense crema that espresso blends borrow it for. Vietnam and Brazil grow most of it, and most of it becomes instant coffee.
It is not a lesser coffee so much as a different job. Fine robusta exists. It is rare, because almost nobody grows it for the cup.
Liberica, the third species
Native to West Africa, planted across Southeast Asia when leaf rust destroyed the region's arabica in the 1890s, then forgotten by the specialty industry for most of a century. Malaysia never stopped growing it.
The tree reaches nine metres against arabica's three or four. The cherries are large and irregular, the bean asymmetric, the caffeine a little below arabica's. The cup is the real difference: fuller and lower than arabica, with a weight that survives milk, cooling, and the absent-minded second brew. Processed with care, it turns floral and strange in ways that surprise people who know it only as truck-stop kopi.
Its return has a research footing. In 2025 a Kew-led study in Nature Plants used genomic data to separate Liberica and Excelsa into two species, and put current world output of the two at probably under 1,000 tonnes. The often-repeated figure of one or two per cent of world supply dates from the late nineteenth century, when Liberica briefly stood beside arabica in the trade. The case for Liberica, in long form.
How the cups differ in practice
Brew arabica for clarity: 1:16, water just off the boil. Brew Liberica for weight: 1:15, 92 °C, a step coarser, and patience while the cup cools into itself. Robusta mostly arrives pre-ground in a tin, which tells its own story.
We roast one single-origin Malaysian Liberica. Sarawak Liberica Long Banga Honey, honey-processed: tangerine and brown sugar over milk chocolate, with coconut underneath. It is the fastest way to understand what the species can do.
The short answers
Which coffee species has the most caffeine?
Robusta, often cited at roughly double arabica. Liberica carries the least, a little below arabica: one side-by-side analysis of Malaysian samples measured 1.23 g per 100 g against 1.61 g for arabica. Body and caffeine are different things: Liberica tastes the heaviest of the three and carries the least caffeine.
The caffeine figures, in full.
Is Liberica better than arabica?
Neither is better. Arabica is prized for brightness and complexity, Liberica for body and depth. It is a different cup, not a lesser one.
What is the rarest of the three coffee species?
Liberica. A 2025 Kew-led study puts current world output of Liberica and Excelsa at probably under 1,000 tonnes, about 0.01 per cent of coffee exports. Malaysia is one of the few origins that never stopped growing it.
Why is robusta cheaper?
It crops heavily at low altitude and shrugs off heat and disease, so it is grown at industrial scale. The price follows ease of production, not just the cup.
Where can I taste Liberica?
We roast one single-origin Malaysian Liberica in Kuala Lumpur, from Long Banga in Sarawak, and ship it internationally by DHL or FedEx, roasted to order.
Shipping details, by country: United States, United Kingdom, Australia, Canada, New Zealand, Singapore, Malaysia, Hong Kong, the Philippines.
