Roast and Reason: A Coffee Podcast
Why suffer through a bitter cup of burnt or stale coffee when there is a world of amazing coffee out there?
Roast and Reason podcast is a coffee podcast that explores the world of specialty coffee. Each week with dive into a wide variety of coffee topics with educational and actionable information.
Are you curious about the best techniques for how to make coffee at home? How to buy the best coffee? How to store coffee? How a coffee roaster transforms green coffee? Join us as we answer these questions and more. Roast and Reason is here to expand your coffee knowledge, introduce you to the coffee farmers, the coffee roasters, and the baristas that push the coffee industry forward.
Join us and drink better coffee. Because life is too short to drink bad coffee!
Roast and Reason: A Coffee Podcast
Arabica Coffee Varieties: Part 1 (RR24)
Arabica coffee (Coffea arabica) originated in the highlands of Ethiopia. It didn’t take long for humans to discover the stimulating effects of the fruit and beans of the coffee tree. Coffee quickly spread and became a global beverage as early as the 16th century after the Ottoman Empire conquered the Arabian Peninsula. Its rising popularity made coffee extremely valuable. The European powers, particularly the Dutch and French, set up coffee plantations on their colonies throughout the world.
Just like different varieties of the apple tree or wine grape, Arabica coffee has many varieties that produce coffee cherries and beans with their own unique appearance and flavor. In its native homeland of Ethiopia the coffee tree has thousands of different native varieties. However, as coffee was transported from Ethiopia and planted elsewhere there was a narrowing of the genetic diversity. The result is that a small handful of varieties make up the majority of coffee produced today.
This episode is part 1 of a two-part series on Arabica coffee varieties. In this episode we will discuss the history of coffee and how it spread from Ethiopia to the rest of the world. Part 2 of this series will then discuss the individual varieties of coffee.