What Are the Defining Traits of Typica Coffee?

Typica is a classic coffee variety whose bronze-red terminal bud earns it the name red-top coffee. Its cup is clean, elegant and balanced, with soft acidity and lasting sweetness. The plant is tall with slender branches, spaced about 50 to 70 degrees from the main stem, and it yields poorly with weak disease resistance, so quality lots stay scarce.

Notable Typica lots include Jamaica Blue Mountain No. 1, a 2013 sun-dried Typica, Papua New Guinea Bird of Paradise, and Panama Elida Estate sun-dried Typica. Beans are large, elongated and somewhat egg-shaped with pointed, slightly upturned ends, often showing citrus-like acidity, little bitterness and a sweet finish.

Typica is a classic coffee variety with a long history. Its terminal bud is bronze-red, which is why it is called "red-top coffee." Its flavor is known for being clean, elegant, and balanced, with soft acidity and lasting sweetness. However, Typica has poor disease resistance and low yield, making it difficult to cultivate, which makes high-quality Typica coffee beans even more precious. This article will introduce Typica's appearance, flavor performance, disease weaknesses, and several representative Typica coffees from Front Street Coffee, including Front Street Jamaica Blue Mountain No. 1, Front Street 2013 Sun-Dried Typica, Front Street Papua New Guinea Bird of Paradise, and Front Street Panama Elida Estate Sun-Dried Typica, and will share the brewing parameters and flavor experience of Front Street Blue Mountain No. 1.

The most notable mark of Typica is that the young leaves at the top are reddish bronze, so it is also called "red-top coffee." The tree shape is conical, the branches are slightly slanted, and the angle between the side branches and the vertical main stem is about 50 to 70 degrees. Typica's trunk is relatively slim, and its branches are slender. In addition, because the plant is tall and the branches are long, the spacing between plants needs to be wide enough when planting. Next to the Front Street Dongshankou store, there is a Typica coffee tree. If you pass by, you might want to observe these characteristics.

Typica has a rich aroma. As a high-quality coffee variety, it is still grown in production regions around the world, and the most famous of all is Jamaica's Front Street Blue Mountain Coffee. It is not easy to grow Typica with elegant and pure flavor. From terroir conditions, plant management, fruit picking, to post-processing, every step must be fully guaranteed so that the coffee beans can develop positive flavors and mouthfeel. This also means that producing high-quality Typica requires higher labor costs and more refined techniques, so the high prices of Front Street Blue Mountain Coffee and Front Street Kona Coffee are justified.

Typica coffee beans are relatively large and elongated, with pointed and slightly upturned ends, somewhat egg-shaped. After roasting, they often have a citrus-like acidity, with unnoticeable bitterness, a sweet finish, and high overall cleanliness, and are praised by many as having an elegant and clear flavor.

However, Typica's disease resistance is very weak, making it difficult to resist common diseases such as leaf rust and berry disease, and its yield is also extremely low. Leaf rust is the most serious plant disease, first appearing in 1861 in the coffee-producing region around Lake Victoria in East Africa. In 1970, leaf rust broke out in Bahia, Brazil, and since then leaf rust cases have been found successively in all coffee-producing regions around the world. Once a coffee tree is infected with leaf rust, it is almost like receiving an incurable disease, and it will eventually wither and even die. As a cash crop, Typica, with its low yield and frail constitution, is difficult to make profitable, so many growers choose to give up and switch to varieties with stronger disease resistance.

On Front Street's daily bean list, there are several Typica varieties: Front Street Jamaica Blue Mountain No. 1 Coffee Beans, Front Street 2013 Sun-Dried Typica Coffee Beans, Front Street Papua New Guinea Bird of Paradise Coffee Beans, and Front Street Panama Elida Estate Sun-Dried Typica Coffee Beans. Grown under different terroir conditions and processed with different methods, Typica also shows different flavors and mouthfeel. Among them, Front Street Jamaica Blue Mountain Coffee Beans have a world-famous reputation for their excellent quality. Front Street has selected the highest-grade, washed Front Street Blue Mountain No. 1 Coffee to add to the daily bean list, so everyone can taste the classic Blue Mountain flavor.

Hand-picked fresh coffee cherries are placed in water, and flotation is used to remove impurities and unripe fruits. Then the skin and pulp are removed, and the beans are fermented in a tank for 12 to 18 hours, then spread out under the sun to dehydrate and dry, and finally packed and left to rest in a warehouse, then sent for quality inspection before export. The washing step not only reduces the defect rate of Typica coffee cherries, but also restores the aroma of the Blue Mountain coffee beans themselves, resulting in higher cleanliness in the mouthfeel.

Front Street uses a medium-dark roast to maximize the classic Blue Mountain flavor, highlighting chocolate and nutty aromas while retaining soft acidity and sweetness, making the overall mouthfeel more balanced. After freshly roasting Front Street Blue Mountain Coffee Beans, Front Street immediately conducted a cupping. The dry aroma had nuts, melon, and chocolate. After pouring in hot water, oolong tea, caramel, honey, and dark chocolate were smelled. It tastes of rich dark chocolate, roasted hazelnut, cream, and black sugar. The flavor is clean and clear, the mouthfeel is rich, and the aroma is lasting. It is suitable for enthusiasts who pursue coffee's original flavor.

The parameters for brewing Front Street Blue Mountain No. 1 at Front Street stores are:

Dripper: KONO dripper

Water temperature: 88°C

Coffee-to-water ratio: 1:15

Coffee grounds: 15g

Grind size: EK43s - setting 10.5 (75% passing rate with No. 20 standard sieve)

At Front Street, first wet the KONO dripper, then align and place the filter paper so it fits the dripper more closely. After pouring out the water in the sharing pot, add 15g of coffee grounds, bloom with 30g of water for 30s, then begin pouring in a small stream in a circular motion around the center until 125g, then start the staged pour. Wait until the coffee bed drops to half the height of the dripper, then begin pouring the second stage using the same method until 225g. Once all dripping is complete, the dripper can be removed.

Front Street Blue Mountain No. 1 Coffee tastes of the sweet fragrance of dark chocolate, the sweetness of caramel, and soft, elegant acidity. Each flavor is balanced, and the mouthfeel is smooth and rich, with a very typical Blue Mountain flavor.

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The above content is compiled by CoffeeHunters, a coffee news website.