What Is Liberica Coffee? (And Why Almost Nobody Sells It)

The rarest commercially grown coffee species in the world is named after our very own Liberia. Most people have never tasted it. A lot of coffee drinkers don’t even know it exists.

Ask ten people to name a coffee species and nine will say Arabica. The tenth might mutter Robusta… Reluctantly.

Almost nobody says Liberica.

Though it was well before our time, Liberica had a short stretch in the late 1800s where it nearly kept the entire coffee trade from collapsing.

The basics

Liberica is one of four coffee species that actually get grown and sold: Arabica, Robusta, Excelsa, and Liberica. It comes from the rainforests of West Africa and still grows wild there. Worldwide it makes up maybe one or two percent of all coffee production. Not one or two percent of specialty coffee. All coffee.

The tree itself is an absolute specimen. You might see the Arabica stay relatively small in nature. Liberica however? That puppy can shoot up close to fifty feet. The leaves? Bigger than my head, and that’s no exaggeration. The cherries too are the biggest of any coffee species, and the beans? You get the picture. Big, irregular, and nothing like the neat little ovals you’re used to seeing.

Liberica to the Rescue?

In the late nineteenth century, coffee leaf rust had its way with Arabica plantations across Asia. Growers got desperate. They found that Liberica held up better against the fungus, so they planted it heavily in places like the Philippines and Malaysia. For a while it looked like the answer.

Then Arabica got up off the sick bed and bounced back.

Once the crisis eased, the industry went right back to what it knew. Research money, breeding programs, and consumer expectations all locked onto Arabica. Liberica got pushed back into the jungle and forgotten, like none of it had happened. Although we are seeing plenty of farms in Southeast Asia continue with planting this coffee. It never fully disappeared from their cups, but everywhere else it vanished from the conversation.

Back into the Wild

It wasn’t mainly the flavor (keyword mainly lol) It was everything around the flavor.

Commodity buyers wanted uniform beans and efficient harvesting, and they still do. Liberica trees are tall, the cherries don’t ripen evenly, and the beans are inconsistent in shape. More expensive, more work. Industrial coffee moved on.

Then, just when Liberica couldn’t catch a break, Liberia’s civil wars hit. Farms abandoned, families displaced, processing infrastructure wrecked. Plenty of trees kept growing wild, but the systems needed to turn them into clean, well-processed coffee fell apart. When some of that coffee reached international buyers in the 1980s, a lot of it tasted rather rough. Woody, uneven, sometimes just off. The reputation stuck.

Bad production led to weak demand. Weak demand meant even less investment in better processing. The cycle kept reinforcing itself, and it led us to what we have today. A ghost market.

Wait… Liberica to the Rescue part II?

Climate pressure on Arabica has people looking harder at other species, and it seems like it comes up every year now. Frost and drought in the main Arabica regions, price spikes, a market that’s gotten very valuable and very unpredictable. Buyers who care about distinctive flavors and resilience are starting to give Liberica a second look.

Most of what reaches Western markets still comes from Southeast Asia. Very little comes from West Africa, where the trees are native and where farming families have lived alongside them for generations.

We’re developing Liberica trees partly because of its root system. It runs deep and tends to hold onto water better than its distant cousins. Working with it hand in hand with Arabica through our grafting program, using Liberica rootstock to give Arabica some protection against drought and the rest of what the climate is throwing at it.

That’s the gap we’re trying to close at WAFI. Every harvest we are planting more and more in our nursery to grow exceptional Liberica. However it takes a village as they say, that’s why we’re  partnering with other farmers across the region to get this coffee processed properly and sold with its actual story attached.

It’s slow work. And to be honest with you, Liberica probably won’t ever replace Arabica. Here’s the thing though, it doesn’t need to. It just needs a fair chance, and the people who kept the trees alive through decades of neglect deserve to be part of whatever comes next, and that is all we’re working towards at the moment. 

The first chapter of that work is starting to show up on our site. We’re releasing roasted Liberica in small batches as we develop the species. Small because that’s what proper processing at this stage actually yields, not because scarcity sells. When a batch is up, it’s up. When it’s gone, there is a strong possibility its because the next one is on the tree.

When a batch is live, it’s in the shop. Buying green by the lot? Open the line.