There are two primary species of coffee, Arabica and Robusta. Arabica beans are delicate and flavorful. Robusta beans are often used in the processing of soluble (instant) coffees and the popular commercial blends.
Arabica is the only coffee that can be drunk on its own, unblended. Coffee Arabica (a-rab-ica), is named after its original advocates, the Arabs, who brought Arabica beans from its native East Africa to the Arabian peninsula in the fifteenth century.