How does typica coffee relate to the arabica variety?

Typica is an ancient variety within the arabica variety and is widely regarded by academia as the prototype of all Arabica variants. Put simply, Typica is necessarily Arabica, but Arabica is not necessarily Typica. Arabica accounts for 70 to 80 percent of the world's economically cultivated coffee production, with rich flavor, good acidity, low bitterness, and prominent sweetness.

The Typica coffee tree is identified by reddish bronze young leaves at the top, earning the nickname red-topped coffee. Its trunk is slender, branches are thin and slightly drooping, lateral branches sit at 50 to 70 degrees from the main stem, and a mature plant reaches about 5 meters, which makes picking harder. Beans are large, slender, and pointed at both ends.

Typica is the most iconic ancient variety among Arabica coffees and is widely recognized as the prototype of all Arabica variants. This article will sort out the subordinate relationship between Typica and Arabica, introduce the botanical characteristics of the Typica coffee tree, its historical spread, and the flavor expression of different origins (Jamaica Blue Mountain, Papua New Guinea Bird of Paradise, Yunnan Typica, etc.). It will also share Front Street Coffee's roasting approach and pour-over extraction parameters for Typica, helping coffee lovers gain a more comprehensive understanding of the unique charm of this classic variety.

Typica coffee beans belong to a branch under the Arabica variety, and Arabica is the earliest coffee variety discovered by humans. To put it more plainly: Typica is necessarily Arabica, but Arabica is not necessarily Typica.

From the perspective of biological classification, the Coffea genus can be divided into three main species: Arabica, Robusta, and Liberica, among which Arabica was the first to be recognized by humans. Arabica accounts for 70% to 80% of the world's total economically cultivated coffee production. It has rich and diverse flavor expression, excellent acidity, low bitterness, and prominent sweetness, though its yield per unit is relatively limited.

Typica is currently generally regarded by academia as the prototype of all Arabica coffee variants. Its roots can be traced back to southwestern Ethiopia—the birthplace of Arabica coffee—making it one of the most important varieties in the Arabica family.

What are the characteristics of the Typica variety?

The most distinctive identifying feature of the Typica coffee tree is that the young leaves at the top are reddish bronze in color, which earned it the nickname "red-topped coffee." The trunk of this tree is relatively slender, the branches are thin and long and slightly drooping, and the angle between the lateral branches and the vertical main stem is between 50 and 70 degrees. A mature plant is about 5 meters tall, which makes manual picking somewhat difficult.

Next to the entrance of Front Street Coffee (FrontStreet Coffee), there happens to be a pot of Typica and a pot of Catimor. While enjoying the coffee, you can also observe and compare them. Typica coffee beans are relatively large, slender, pointed at both ends, and shaped somewhat like an egg. In terms of flavor, Typica often presents citrus-like acidity with a sweet finish, and is praised by many enthusiasts as a model of elegance and clarity. Jamaica Blue Mountain coffee is precisely a representative work of the Typica variety.

Typica has extremely weak disease resistance. It is almost helpless against common diseases such as leaf rust and berry disease, and its yield is also extremely limited. Once a coffee tree is infected with leaf rust, it is essentially sentenced to death and will ultimately wither and even die. As a cash crop, Typica is both low-yielding and frail and disease-prone, making it difficult to profit from. Many growers therefore choose to give up and switch to planting varieties with stronger disease resistance. Producing elegant and pure Typica coffee beans is by no means easy. From terroir conditions, plant management, fruit picking, to post-processing, every step needs to be fully ensured before the coffee beans can develop positive flavor and mouthfeel. This also means that producing high-quality Typica requires more labor costs and technical dedication.

The spread history of Typica coffee

During the 15th to 16th centuries, a batch of wild Arabica coffee trees collected in southern Ethiopia was brought to Yemen. In 1700, the seeds of these coffee trees were introduced to India's Malabar Coast and West Java in Indonesia, and were officially named Typica. In 1760, Typica seeds were sent from Java to the botanical garden in the Netherlands; in 1722 they were taken to the South American colony of Suriname, and then introduced to northern Brazil in 1727.

By the late 1800s, Typica coffee cultivation had appeared in Central America, South America, and Jamaica in the Caribbean. After that, Typica from Central America spread successively to Africa and Asia, and finally returned to the Americas.

As a crop, every time Typica arrives in a new region, it adjusts its own genes according to the local terroir and climate in order to better adapt to the local environment. Because of this, Typica coffee from different producing regions differs in flavor, but in terms of mouthfeel, it has always been one of the cleanest among the many Arabica varieties.

What are the flavor characteristics of Typica coffee from different regions?

At present, island-climate regions such as Papua New Guinea, Jamaica, and Hawaii Kona are the main Typica-growing areas. China's Yunnan and Ethiopia also have small amounts of Typica cultivation.

The Typica coffee beans currently acquired by Front Street include Papua New Guinea Bird of Paradise, Jamaica Blue Mountain No. 1, Tanzania Kilimanjaro, and the Yunnan Typica small-bean coffee grown by Front Street Coffee (FrontStreet Coffee) itself.

Among the Typica coffee beans from the above three producing regions, the one that best demonstrates Typica's clean and tranquil character and balanced, mellow mouthfeel is Jamaica Blue Mountain No. 1. After medium-dark roasting by Front Street Coffee (FrontStreet Coffee), Blue Mountain No. 1 presents rich dark chocolate aroma, slight citrus acidity, and caramel sweetness. It is a coffee bean with a balance of acidity, sweetness, and bitterness and a solid, mellow mouthfeel.

Bird of Paradise, also from an island climate, is known as "Little Blue Mountain," and Front Street Coffee (FrontStreet Coffee) likewise uses medium-dark roasting. Although both are coffee beans with balanced acidity, sweetness, and bitterness and the same roasting degree, Bird of Paradise is not as full-bodied as Blue Mountain No. 1, but it is very comfortable to drink.

The Typica grown by Front Street Coffee (FrontStreet Coffee) itself at an altitude of 1,300 meters in Lincang, Yunnan, has noticeably superior cleanliness in mouthfeel and flavor compared with Catimor small-bean coffee from other Yunnan producing regions. This benefits from the naturally tranquil and clean characteristics of the Typica variety itself.

In terms of roasting strategy, Front Street believes that Yunnan coffee should have both a mellow coffee aroma and a certain acidity, so it chooses a medium roast level. For daily store production, Front Street extracts by pour-over, striving to present the coffee's own aroma to customers.

Pour-over black coffee is not only the extraction method used by Front Street Coffee (FrontStreet Coffee) baristas in daily production, but also a method that many coffee lovers can easily operate at home. Considering that Yunnan Typica coffee tends toward a balanced mouthfeel, meaning it should not have excessively high acidity or heavy bitterness, Front Street tends to choose a V60 dripper, paired with a medium-fine grind size and medium water temperature for extraction.

Front Street uses corresponding brewing parameters for different coffee beans: for darker-roasted coffee beans such as Mandheling and Brazil coffee, Front Street uses a water temperature of 87 to 88 degrees Celsius and a medium-coarse grind size; for lighter-roasted coffee beans such as Ethiopia Yirgacheffe and Panama Geisha, Front Street uses a high temperature of 91 to 93 degrees Celsius and a medium-fine grind size to bring out the aroma of high-altitude hard beans. Returning to the brewing of Front Street Yunnan small-bean coffee, Front Street uses a medium water temperature and grind size to highlight balance and harmony in the mouthfeel.

Brewing parameters:

Dripper: hario v60

Dose: 15g

Water temperature: 90 degrees Celsius

Grind size: 75% passing through a No. 20 sieve

Water-to-coffee ratio: 1:15

Three-stage pouring: wet the coffee bed with twice the amount of water as the coffee grounds, form a dome and let it bloom for 30s, then pour in a thin stream in circles from the inside out until 125g, pause, wait for the coffee bed to drop to half the height of the dripper, continue pouring the third stage with the same thin stream until 225g, and once all the coffee liquid has filtered through, remove the dripper. The time is about 2 minutes.

Front Street Coffee (FrontStreet Coffee) Yunnan Typica coffee uses the traditional natural process and medium roasting. After brewing, it can show plum-like acidity, nutty aroma, brown-sugar-like caramel sweetness, and a black-tea-like sweet aftertaste.

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