What is arabica coffee?
Arabica coffee comes from Coffea arabica, a flowering shrub native to the highlands of southwestern Ethiopia and the species behind about 60 percent of the world's coffee, by Wikipedia's figure. It grows best at altitude, and it brews a brighter, less bitter cup with less caffeine than robusta, the other main species.
How the arabica plant grows
Wild arabica grows in the forests of southern Ethiopia, South Sudan and Yemen. Wikipedia describes it as a cross between two other coffee species, Coffea canephora and Coffea eugenioides, which left it with four copies of its chromosomes, 44 in all, where most coffee species carry 22.
Farms grow it mostly between 1,200 and 1,500 meters, though Wikipedia notes plantations from sea level up to 2,800 meters. Unlike robusta it prefers light shade. Three to four years after planting, the shrub puts out small white flowers with a jasmine-like scent, and those flowers become the fruit: the coffee cherry, with two seeds inside that become coffee beans. Growers keep the shrubs trimmed to a picking height.
Arabica is fragile. Wikipedia says it is more vulnerable to pests than robusta, and coffee leaf rust, a fungus, is a major threat to its supply. Since the mid twentieth century, World Coffee Research notes, breeders have introduced rust resistant varieties.
Arabica varieties
Arabica is a species; the names on a specialty bag are its varieties. World Coffee Research traces most historical arabica to two lines, Typica and Bourbon, both carried out of Ethiopia by way of Yemen. Others you will meet include Caturra, a Bourbon mutation, and Gesha, named for a village in Ethiopia. In Ethiopia itself, most coffee comes from local plants sold under the heirloom label.
Arabica vs robusta
| Arabica (Coffea arabica) | Robusta (Coffea canephora) | |
|---|---|---|
| Native range | Southwestern Ethiopia, South Sudan, Yemen | Central and western sub-Saharan Africa |
| Chromosomes | 44 | 22 |
| Caffeine | About 1.5 percent | About 2.7 percent |
| Cup | More acidity, less bitter | Lower acidity, more bitter, woody, less fruity |
| Pests and disease | More vulnerable | Less susceptible |
| Main uses | Specialty coffee, single origins, most blends | Most instant coffee; some Italian espresso blends |
From Wikipedia's Coffea arabica and Coffea canephora articles. A bag marked "100% arabica" is telling you the second column is absent.
Arabica and Montana
Montana grows no coffee. Wikipedia's coffee bean article sets the growing band at warm, wet tropical conditions, and a Montana winter is the opposite. So every Montana roaster is an importer's customer: it buys green arabica from farms thousands of miles away and turns it into something that tastes of the choices made here, in the roast and the blend.
What the state's roasters say about their arabica, from their own sites on September 27, 2026:
- Montana Coffee Traders, Whitefish, says it sources and roasts arabica coffees and buys high grade arabica from farmers worldwide, including direct to farm.
- Ghost Town Coffee Roasters, Bozeman, listed arabica varieties by name: a Colombia Mist Gesha and a Colombia Mikilillo Caturra Chiroso.
- Revel Coffee, Billings, listed a Colombia Monteblanco Purple Caturra.
- Hunter Bay Coffee, Lolo, says it buys high grade green coffee from small independent farms, with its leaders traveling to origin.
- RamsHead Coffee Roasters, Shields Valley, sells microlots and rare varieties.
The coffee is grown far away; the roasting, the jobs and the know-how are in Bozeman, Billings, Lolo and Whitefish. That part is what a Montana subscription keeps local. Read why it matters.
Finding arabica in the club
The plan builder has no species setting, because the style you pick does the work. Choose Single origin on the home page and the bag names one place the coffee grew, and, when the roaster knows them, the farm and variety; our packing slip carries the roaster's story and tasting notes. The single origin subscription page explains more. $16.99 a 12 oz bag, any roast. First bag free, you pay $7.99 shipping. Then $16.99 a bag.
Related terms and sources
- Coffee cherry, green coffee beans, peaberry coffee, heirloom coffee, Sumatra coffee
- Robusta, Typica, Bourbon, Gesha, coffee leaf rust
Sources: Wikipedia, Coffea arabica; Wikipedia, Coffea canephora; Wikipedia, Coffee bean; World Coffee Research, Typica; Montana roaster offerings from each roaster's own site, read September 27, 2026.