"Coffee" comes from the Latin form of the genus Coffea, a member of the Rubiaceae family which includes more than 500 genera and 6,000 species of tropical trees and shrubs.

Eighteenth-century Swedish Botanist Carolus Linnaeus first described the genus but, to this day, botanists still disagree on the classification because of the wide variations that occur in coffee plants and seeds. Species of Coffea range from small shrubs to trees as tall as 32 feet high and the leaves can range in color from purple to yellow, however, green is the predominant color.

There are about 25 major species within Coffea, but the typical coffee drinker is likely to be familiar with two: Coffea arabica (pronounced either a-rã-bik-a or ar-a-bë-ka and Coffea canephora (var. robusta).