samftla

First of all there are two types of coffee beans, Robusta and Arabica. What is typically referred to as "gourmet" coffee would normally be about Arabica coffees. However more and more of the flavored coffees seem to be so labeled regardless of the type of coffee bean.

Robusta coffee is generally considered of inferior quality and taste to that of Arabica. Most of the major commercial brands, Maxwell House, Folgers etc are made from Robusta. It is a much cheaper coffee to produce, higher yields and also grows about anywhere as long as there is no frost. In addition Robusta coffees have about 3 times the amount of caffeine as Arabica ones.

In general Arabicas coffee trees yield substantially less, the trees are difficult to cultivate and each tree can produce anywhere from 0.5-5 kg of dried beans, depending on the tree's individual character and the climate that season.

But just because a bean is Arabica does not insure a great cup of coffee, very dependent on how and when it was roasted and how and when it was brewed. In general 7 days after roasting a coffee bean will begin to go stale.

In you would like more information try this link
http://kaffee.netfirms.com/Coffee/robustavsarabica.html

Sam