Coffee Glossary · Coffee Basics
Robusta (Coffea canephora)
The second commercial coffee species: higher-yielding, disease-hardy, caffeine-rich, and traditionally traded as a cheap blend filler. Robusta thrives in heat and low altitude where Arabica fails, and contributes crema, body, and extraction efficiency prized in espresso and instant coffee. Handled like specialty Arabica — ripe-picked, floated, washed — it becomes Fine Robusta, a defined quality tier with clean chocolate-malt cups. High-altitude washed Robusta from the Bolaven Plateau is among Asia's leading examples of the category.
Related terms
Arabica (Coffea arabica)
The species behind roughly 60% of world coffee and nearly all specialty-grade lots. Arabica evolved in…
Cupping
Coffee's standardized tasting protocol: coarse-ground samples steeped in bowls under strict ratios and…
Screen Size
Bean size measured by passing green coffee over perforated screens, numbered in 64ths of an inch — screen 16…
Coffee Cherry
The fruit of the coffee tree — a small drupe that ripens from green through yellow to deep red (or…
Green Coffee
Coffee in its internationally traded form: the dried, milled seed of the coffee cherry before roasting,…
Peaberry
A natural mutation in which a cherry develops one round seed instead of the usual two flat-faced beans —…
Reading up before buying? Volcana Coffee exports SGS-inspected specialty Arabica and Fine Robusta from the Bolaven Plateau, Laos — and we're happy to walk new importers through every term on a real offer sheet.
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