All types of coffee from Cellini Caffè.

The botanical name for coffee is Coffea. The coffee plant belongs to the blushing family, which includes around 500 genera and 6000 species. However, only two types of coffee are of economic relevance: Arabica coffee (Coffea Arabica) and Robusta coffee (Coffea Canephora). The name Coffea comes from Arabic, derived from quawah (drink made from plants).

Coffea Robusta was only discovered in Congo in the 18th century. As the name suggests, Robusta coffee is more resistant to diseases, pests and temperature fluctuations. Robusta is grown in the lowlands, which makes harvesting much easier and more productive. As a result, Arabica coffee is also significantly more expensive on the world market than Robusta coffee. Around 30% of the world harvest is Robusta coffee .

Both types of coffee are cultivated around the equator, in the so-called coffee belt between the 23rd degree of latitude north and the 25th degree of latitude south.
Arabica coffee is mainly grown in Central and South American countries and in East Africa. In the meantime, Asian countries have also discovered this market for themselves, and Arabica also comes from countries such as Papua New Giunea or Indonesia. Incidentally, the country of origin of the Arabica coffee plant is Ethiopia. Robusta coffee, on the other hand, comes mainly from West Africa, Uganda, Vietnam, Indonesia, India and the export world champion Brazil.

In contrast to Robusta , Arabica coffee is much more demanding. It requires high humidity and does not like it too hot or too cold, ideally at altitudes between 400 and 1200 meters. Thus, not only the cultivation, but also the harvest requires a lot of skill and patience. The coffee plants are harvested by hand over a period of up to four weeks, because only coffee cherries with the right degree of ripeness should be harvested. The well-trained harvest workers recognize the ideal degree of ripeness based on the color of the coffee cherries and, thanks to their expertise, can give unripe cherries a little more time to ripen.

Arabica beans are characterized by a mild, harmonious and aromatic taste. They have a high proportion of coffee oils. More than 800 flavoring aromas could be detected in them. They have a wide range of different notes: fruity, nutty, chocolaty, berry, honeyed to floral notes. A real explosion of flavors.

Robusta beans come with darker, bitter and chocolaty notes. Their taste is not quite as diverse and at first glance this description does not seem to be quite as flattering as for Arabica coffee . As an Italian roastery, we swear by the excellent interplay of the coffee varieties. The combination brings out the best of both worlds.

In addition to differences in taste and appearance, the caffeine content of both types of coffee is also fundamentally different. Arabica beans have a caffeine content between 1.1 and 1.7 percent. Robusta beans , on the other hand, have a caffeine content of 2 to 4.5 percent. Robusta is also well ahead of Arabica when it comes to the content of chlorogenic acids. These rather undesirable acids are significantly reduced by our gentle roasting.

Cellini coffees are therefore traditionally roasted very gently at low temperatures using the drum roasting process.

Due to the longer roasting time, acids are broken down, while the fine flavors are completely absorbed
can develop. By the way, the Italian roasts are a bit lighter in the north of Italy, while in the south they become darker and almost black. With these very dark roasts, the acids are broken down while the amount of bitter substances increases.