Far from the coffee expert but......

Cuban coffee is still C. arabica. There's only two main coffee producing species, arabica being the primary and robusta being next - lots of subspecies for both.

Cuban coffee is sorta like Vidalia onions. Something about the soil, region etc. Most coffee will grow in shade, in the wild it is an understory plant.

I would look Google coffee as Coffea, if you want to research it.

The past January I visited one of my cousins in Miami. She showed me her coffee trees with beans on them. She visited Cuba a few years ago and brought over several seeds and planted them.
She roasted some beans from it and made us Cuban cafe. I sipped it down ever so slow. It was delicious.
Felix

Crimony! That guy lives with in walking distance of my house! I've been by his house many times eyeing his palms. I don't know anything about coffee though. I have the native coffee and it hates where I have it...in the sun.

I was reading that there are dozens of varieties of wild coffee, and most are going extinct.

The native coffee likes shade, Laura. Think you could run by his house and snatch some seeds? LOL

I could alway ask. plant people usually like to share. It would be a good excuse to see his garden.

Joys! I didn't think coffee could be grown at low elevations.

Let me know if you find a vendor for appropriate types......

I have this coffee plant in a pot under a palm tree, mine definitely prefers it in the shade than the sun. I had it in full sun for the first week or two after I purchased it a year and a half ago, and I almost killed it. The leaves got sunburned, turned brown and fell off. It is much better now, has really grown, I even got two flowers for the very time a few weeks ago. No beans yet though, maybe next year? I wonder what the different is with this Cuban Coffee Plant. I think it might have something to do with the way they roast or prepare the coffee beans, not the plant, but I'm not a coffee expert...

I lived in Miami for two years and got "hooked" on Cuban Coffee, boy was it delicious...But man, it was STRONG! It will certainly wake you up in a hurry...LOL

Laura, Just wondering if you were you able to ask him about the Coffee Plant or the seeds? ...Thanks

Hey! I was on that guy's website and did a copy/paste of "coffee Cubanesus" from his page; thus, found this haha. I grow arabica here in Houston, TX. In regards to them being grown at high elevations, I've heard that plenty of times as well and disproved it myself. Then again, I grow 30 tropical fruits here so who knows. ANYTHING IS POSSIBLE FOR GARDENERS AND FISHERMEN!!

Junkyardgirl-great screen name BTW-you wouldn't be talking about "wild coffee" by any chance, would you? That's Psychotria nervosa, a Florida native shrub which is related to coffee. I believe it is possible top brew up some kind of beverage from this plant, but again, it's related to coffee, but not an actual coffee type. It is a great native Florida plant.