Sitting for a while in a favourite cafe and drinking coffee is some habit very characteristic to Croatians. Or maybe the unwanted Mr. Covid-19 had changed this habit for some of us ?! Hm ...

Oftenly it goes in this order: a person sits in a cafe, the waiter comes and person orders espresso, short or long one, capuccino or macchiato. And not thinking about the type of coffee that will be served, because every coffee is coffee. Socializing ritual that stands behind the coffee is somehow more important.

Very few people actually know that there are two basic types of coffee, robusta and arabica. How we can notice what coffee we are drinking? Robusta or a robusta blend is served in most cafes within Croatia. It can be easily recognized due to its bitter, pungent taste. Of course, we must point out that bitterness cannot be attributed only due to the type of coffee, but it partly may come from overroasting of coffee. To present you a robusta even more, a classic Italian or Austrian espresso with lots of cream is robusta actually. Unlike robusta, arabica is dominated by fruit acids, tea notes and hints of nutty or chocolate tones. Arabica contains more fruit sugars which gives it sweetness in taste.

Why is that so? Caffeine is the culprit for the bitterness in the taste. Robusta contains almost twice as much (2.7%) caffeine as Arabica (1.5%).

These are just some of the differences between the two basic types of coffee. Perhaps seems irrelevant, but they can certainly be important when we talk about coffee and its impact on human health. Take it into consideration!