Coffea is a genus of plant that is native to the tropical regions of Africa and Asia, but can also be found all over South America. Some species of this genus are plants that grow seeds that most people know as coffee beans.

To get a coffee bean, the seeds need to undergo a series of long and carefully monitored processes, not to mention having to be handpicked one seed at a time. Once the beans are ready though, they are used to create some of the most popular products in our society, not to mention most every other society around the world.

The basic drink we call coffee:

Calling something coffee is a lot like calling something wine. It's a general label applied to a whole whack of different drinks. Basically though, coffee is something that's created by filtering hot water through ground up coffee beans. Drunk plain, also known as black, or with milk, cream or sugar, it's amongst the most widely consumed drinks in the world.

Like wine, which differs based on the types of grapes used and the region in which they're from, coffee is affected by the type of bean used to make it. The flavor of a coffee bean differs greatly depending on what kind of plant it's from and where in the world it was grown, not to mention the ripeness of the bean when it was picked.

The flavor of a cup of coffee is also greatly dependant on how the beans were roasted, and how recently that took place. Beans may be roasted anywhere from twelve to thirty minutes, resulting in what is known as a light, medium or full roast.

A little fancier and you have espresso:

Espresso is a very popular version of coffee, and tends to be consumed more in Europe than in other parts of the world. Like regular coffee, it is made from roasted coffee beans and, in fact, the same ground beans can be used for either beverage. Also like regular coffee, the type and quality of espresso depends on the type of beans and roast that were used.

What makes espresso different is the way the drink is extracted from the beans. Hot water, but not boiling water as is the case with coffee, is pressurized and forced through ground coffee. The result is a much more concentrated form of coffee. In espresso there is as much as fifteen times the amount of coffee in a given amount of water. Because of the concentration, espresso is a highly caffeinated form of coffee and is served in shots.

For those who don't like strong, is Americano:

Americano is basically espresso, but weaker. The drink is believed to have been born because American soldiers in WWII found the European way of drinking coffee too strong. As a result, their espresso was cut with hot water.

And then there's cappuccino and cafe lattés:

Again, these are variants on espresso. These are two of several types of drinks formed by adding milk in different variants, creating unique coffee experiences. A cappuccino is espresso mixed with milk froth, and a latte is one that's mixed with steamed milk. All of these drinks, along with others, are born out of the coffee bean. The best part of all of it is getting to discover your favourite.