In its raw, sooty form, the idea of applying coffee to the skin sounds absurd but search ... but it’s the cheaper robusta variety that yields the cosmeceutical magic with double the caffeine ...

Catherine Bashiama runs her fingers along the branches of the coffee tree she’s raised from a seedling, searching anxiously for its first fruit buds since she planted it three years ago.

New York: The world’s growing love for instant coffee is keeping roasters reliant on the robusta variety once snubbed by java snobs, even as prices reach the highest in about half a century.