In Malaysia, when we talk about coffee, it's most likely referred to the Kopi O and the types(Ipoh White Coffee,Nescafe etc). Fortunately(and also unfortunately), there're so many types of coffee drinks out there in the world. So hereby, I would like to give a brief introduction of what's out there.
Pic: Arabica Coffee tree with its cherries
There are three major species of the coffee trees (relevant to coffee making), that bears and produces three main types of coffee cherry beans, being:
i) Arabica-
This is the most sought after species- having lower caffeine content comparatively and has more taste characteristic to it. The taste is smoother generally and more sophisticated. Thus the beans from Arabica trees are normally regarded as high quality beans if properly prepared. Most gourmet(expensive) coffee you will see are almost exclusively Arabica beans.
ii) Robusta
The is the second most popular coffee species, after the Arabica variant. It has a high caffeine content relative to Arabica and overall has a harsher taste to it (Many connoisseurs often described the lower grade Robusta having burnt rubber flavor). Because of that, the price of Robusta is normally cheaper than its Arabica counterpart. With the low price and high caffeine kick, where you guess it would normally go? That's right, instant coffee!
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ii) Liberica
This is the rarer species of coffee trees, mainly because it doesn't have much value for making coffee drinks and thus less cultivated. The taste characteristic is more like Robusta but is more subtle. You will stumble upon this type of coffee species once a while in Malaysia or Indonesia.
Note: It is important to note that species does not necessarily implies the grade(how delicious) of the coffee. So even if you're drinking Arabica, it might be a low-grade Arabica (seen quite a few advertisement that says 100% Arabica,but the taste is...urm...nasty). The same way goes for Robusta beans - there are some that is good.
Beverages:
Kopi (or Black Coffee)-
This is probably the most popular 'coffee' found in Malaysia. Just go to any Kopitiam and order Kopi O. The Kopi beans itself is generally the Robusta species, cheaper what. During the roasting process, sugar and margarine is added to give an unique aroma to the coffee. On top of that, Kopi is usually served with condensed milk or a generous amount of sugar. Some examples would be Kopi Kapal Api,Aik Cheong etc that you find in supermarkets.
Ipoh White Coffee-
As the name implies, this coffee beverage originates from our lovely Ipoh town. It is very similar to Kopi, in using Robusta beans generally and served with sweeteners. Even though it's named "white coffee", it has nothing to do with the color white. It just means that no sugar is added during the roasting process - only margarine is added and is roasted to a lighter degree. If you read it from Mandarin it would make more sense. ”白“ means empty - no sugar added, 咖啡 - pretty self-explanatory.
"Usually, Malaysia black coffee is produced by roasting the coffee beans with sugar and magarine laced with 60% burnt caramel. The Ipoh White Coffee on the other hand is produced by roasting the beans with only magarine and no sugar and roasted to a lighter degree, resulting in a coffee that is less dark. The species used is often the Robusta species. Swettened and evaporated milk is often added to the coffee. "
Quoted from http://guide-to-malaysia.blogspot.com/2006/09/coffee-brief-overview-ipoh-white-coffee.html
Instant Coffee-
The most direct example of instant coffee is Nescafe. Just add hot water and you get a cup of coffee, no need to filter or anything. Instant coffee is made from boiling(I won't even say brew) the ground coffee(read Robusta) at high temperature to get a high concentration of coffee water. Then these coffee water is then dried into coffee crystals(similar to making milk powder). The end result is what you see in a bottle of Nescafe. Very convenient for the caffeine you need in the morning.
Italian Coffee
Even under Italian Coffee, there are many types by itself. We have Starbucks, San Francisco Coffee etc. The most distinctive about Italian Coffee is that you will have Espresso and espresso-based beverage such as Cappuccino, Americano, Cafe Latte, Affogato etc (If you're in the cafe, you find that you can read the word but don't understand a thing, most likely it's Italian. Heh). Starbucks and its peers generally use Arabica beans for brewing espresso. However, the trend is they're using a very dark roast coffee. In doing that, most of the subtle flavors are burnt and is covered up by a strong roast flavor, which leads to a bitter brew. This ended up requiring quite some sweetener to make the drink acceptable for most.
Recently, there rises a movement(it's called Third Wave Coffee) to produce high quality coffee, and to regard the coffee as a speciality gourmet (like red wine) rather than a mass-produced commodity. In order to taste the characteristic that is offered by the individual beans, the coffee is normally roasted to a light or medium roast - just enough for the sugar in coffee bean to caramelize and to let out the subtle flavors. On top of that, the movement also promotes coffee to be consumed as fresh as possible (recommended to be finished within 2 weeks of roast date). This is to avoid the flavor compounds from deteriorating and becoming less pronounced, since what we're tasting in the coffee are subtle flavors.
It's like catching a glimpse of what the coffee could present best.
If you're still reading at this point, the brain is probably saturated. :P Anyhow, all the coffee beverages are unique in their own way. Not one is better than the other since taste is subjective. But I tend to fall into the latter group that appreciates coffee for what it is - the third wave group - that we taste the coffee for its subtle notes at its best and every coffee will taste different. No, coffee does not just taste like coffee for us. :D
