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, lower in caffeine, under one per cent of world supply, and grown almost nowhere except Southeast Asia.
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 | Under 1 per cent |
| The cup | Bright, sweet, complex | Heavy, bitter, dense crema | Full-bodied, low, floral when well made |
| Caffeine | Moderate | Roughly double arabica | About half 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 about half of 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.
Two dates mark its return. In April 2022 the Specialty Coffee Association added Coffea liberica to its recognised specialty taxonomy. In 2023, Kew Gardens named it a probable successor to arabica in regions becoming too hot to grow it, calling it the specialty coffee of the 22nd century. 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 two single-origin Malaysian Libericas. Sarawak Liberica Ragi, anaerobic honey, manuka and florals. Taiping Liberica, washed, chocolate and dried fruit. Side by side, they are the fastest way to understand what the species can do.
The short answers
Which coffee species has the most caffeine?
Robusta, at roughly double arabica. Liberica carries the least, about half of arabica. Body and caffeine are different things: Liberica tastes the heaviest of the three and carries the least caffeine.
Is Liberica better than arabica?
Neither is better. Arabica is prized for brightness and complexity, Liberica for body and depth. The SCA has recognised Liberica as a specialty species since 2022. It is a different cup, not a lesser one.
What is the rarest of the three coffee species?
Liberica, at under one per cent of world supply. 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 two single-origin Malaysian Libericas in Kuala Lumpur, from Sarawak and from Perak, and ship them 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.
