As one of the oldest varieties of Arabica coffee, Typica traveled from Ethiopia to the world, profoundly shaping the global coffee cultivation landscape. This article will trace Typica's spread, from Yemen, India, and Europe to Southeast Asia, Central and South America, and then to Hawaii and Yunnan, and provide a detailed introduction to its entire process from sowing to seedling cultivation. At the same time, Front Street Coffee will share its experience in roasting, cupping, and brewing Jamaican Blue Mountain Typica, giving you a comprehensive understanding of this classic variety's flavor performance and quality characteristics.
Currently, Arabica coffee beans account for about 70% of global production, and Typica, as one of the oldest varieties within Arabica, started from Ethiopia and gradually spread to coffee-producing regions around the world, driving the development of the coffee industry in many producing countries. How exactly did it spread across the globe? What steps are required to grow Typica? This article from Front Street will introduce it from two perspectives: the spread history of Typica and the process from seed to mature tree.
Typica Coffee Bean Variety
Typica belongs to a sub-variety under Arabica coffee and was first grown on Martinique. Today, Central America, Jamaica, Hawaii Kona, Papua New Guinea, and East Timor are among the main Typica-growing regions. In order to maintain high quality while increasing yield, Typica is often crossbred with other varieties.
Typica's tree shape is highly recognizable. The plant is conical, with an upright trunk that can grow up to 5 meters tall. This height means that its branch spacing and the node spacing on the same branch are both longer than those of other varieties. The angle between the lateral branches and the trunk is between 50 and 80 degrees. The trunk and branches are not especially thick, and the leaves, fruit, and green beans are mostly slender. The tips of young leaf buds are bronze-colored. Compared with other Arabica varieties, Typica's leaf surface is smoother and has fewer wavy edges. The fruit turns bright red when ripe.
The bronze-colored top leaves of Typica are one of its signature characteristics. The beans are relatively large, pointed oval or slender-pointed in shape, so some people also call it "red-top coffee." However, its disadvantages are also obvious: low yield, altitude requirements, susceptibility to leaf rust, and weak resistance to pests and diseases. Through cupping, FrontStreet Coffee has found that Typica has a clear, clean flavor and balanced mouthfeel, with outstanding cleanliness.
Typica Coffee's Global Spread Route
Typica's Hometown — Ethiopia: The name Arabica can easily make people mistakenly believe that its place of origin is the Arabian Peninsula, but in fact it originated in Ethiopia. It is called Arabica because the Arabian Peninsula connected Asia, Europe, and Africa and was the center of world cultural exchange before the Age of Discovery. In 1753, the botanist Linnaeus mistakenly believed that this coffee came from the Middle East, so he gave it the scientific name Coffea arabica L. It was not until 2002 that a coffee genetic material research project funded by Europe discovered that the genetic diversity of coffee in Yemen and other places was far lower than that in Ethiopia, which truly helped identify Arabica's homeland.
Typica's First Stop — Yemen: When coffee first spread to the Arabian Peninsula, it was used only as medicine. After centuries of taking root and multiplying, around 1500, the Yemeni ports of Mocha and Aden began to popularize drinking crushed dried coffee fruit pulp soaked in water, called "Qishr." Later, the practice gradually developed of grinding and boiling the fruit pulp together with cinnamon-roasted coffee beans, called "Qahwa."
Typica's Second Stop — India: Around 1600, a devout Indian Muslim named Baba Budan went on a pilgrimage to Mecca and became fascinated with coffee, attempting to illegally bring green beans back to India. He stole 7 Yemeni Typica seeds, returned to Karnataka in southwestern India, planted them on the Chandragiri Hills, and successfully propagated them. This was the first successful case in history of smuggling coffee green beans from Yemen to grow elsewhere.
Typica's Third Stop — Europe: Around the 17th century, Yemen's Mocha Port was already a world-famous coffee export port. At that time, in order to prevent coffee seeds from flowing out, exported coffee was all roasted, so coffee was also called "black gold." When coffee spread to Europe in the 17th century, the Dutch, known as the "sea coachmen," smelled huge business opportunities — whoever controlled coffee controlled gold.
In the early 17th century, Europeans led by the Dutch obtained Yemeni coffee saplings through illegal theft or seizure by force, but Europe's cold climate made it difficult for these saplings to survive. It was not until 1616 that Captain De Boer of the Dutch East India Company stole coffee trees from Yemen's Mocha, transported them back to Amsterdam, and carefully planted them in a large greenhouse, where they finally bloomed and bore fruit. This Typica coffee tree was also called the "European mother plant." In 1699, the Dutch transplanted Indian Typica to Java and succeeded in trial cultivation, and in 1706 they transported Javan Typica back to the Netherlands for cultivation.
Typica's Fourth Stop — Southeast Asia: As early as 1658, the Dutch transplanted descendants of the "European mother plant" to Sri Lanka, but unfortunately the planting failed. In 1699, the Dutch transplanted coffee trees from Malabar in eastern India to Java. This trial cultivation succeeded, and Typica steadily propagated in Java. In 1718, the Dutch transplanted the successfully trial-grown Typica from Java to Sumatra and Sulawesi. After more than a century of propagation, Indonesian Typica was growing strongly. However, at the end of the 19th century, an outbreak of leaf rust swept through most Indonesian Typica, and afterward the more disease-resistant Robusta variety had to be introduced.
Typica's Fifth Stop — Central and South America: In 1708, coffee trees stolen by France from Mocha failed in trial cultivation in Dijon. In 1714, the mayor of Amsterdam presented Javan coffee saplings to King Louis XIV of France, and France built a greenhouse to carefully care for this sole seedling. Between 1715 and 1719, descendants of this mother plant were transplanted to French possessions in Central and South America, but all failed.
In 1720, naval officer Gabriel de Clieu stole a Typica sapling from the Royal Botanical Garden in Paris, escorted it westward across the Americas, and arrived in 1723 at the French island of Martinique in the Caribbean, where he carefully planted this sole coffee seedling. Three years later, this "European mother plant" was laden with fruit. By 1777, Martinique had planted 19 million Typica trees. In the mid-to-late 18th century, countries in Central and South America such as Jamaica, Colombia, Guatemala, Costa Rica, and Venezuela also successively introduced Typica coffee trees, and thus Typica took root in Central and South America.
Typica's Sixth Stop — A Small Journey in the 19th Century: In 1825, Hawaii introduced Guatemalan-improved Typica coffee and planted it in the Kona region, becoming today's famous island coffee — Kona coffee. In 1904, French missionary Father Tian Deneng went to Dali to preach and planted a Typica coffee tree in Zhukula Village. This tree also became the ancestor of Yunnan coffee.
Now that we understand Typica's spread history, next let us follow FrontStreet Coffee to look at Typica coffee's growth process. In recent years, Front Street has been growing Typica coffee beans on land at the border between Yunnan and Myanmar, with the aim of improving the quality of Yunnan coffee by changing the varieties currently grown in Yunnan. Below, follow Front Street to learn the complete process from a coffee bean to a coffee tree.
Seed Selection: Everything starts with a single coffee seed. The coffee seed is the "coffee bean." First, select the seeds, choosing high-quality varieties and high-quality beans. Variety refers to Typica, Bourbon, and so on. Front Street believes that only high-quality varieties can produce high-quality coffee. In terms of bean quality, Front Street believes that breeding fruit must be fully ripe, normal in shape, plump and full, and basically uniform in size. If short-term storage is needed, the seed moisture content should be reduced to 13%; sowing within 1 to 3 months can achieve a germination rate of 100%, while from 4 to 7 months the germination rate is only 29%.
Germination: Soak the prepared coffee seeds in 45% warm water for 24 hours, then sow them in medium-coarse sand (river sand), cover with 1 to 2 centimeters of coarse sand, and then spread 3 to 5 centimeters of rice straw on top, keeping the sand layer moist. About 20 days after sowing, the coffee seeds begin to sprout, and in 40 to 60 days they break through the soil. At this time, a shade shed needs to be built, requiring a shade rate of 80%.
Seedling Cultivation: When the sprouts grow their first pair of leaves, Front Street's coffee farmers select the coffee seedlings, choosing high-quality young seedlings and moving them into nutrient bags for seedling cultivation.
Mature Tree: After seedling cultivation is completed, they must be transplanted into the field for planting. Altitude is closely related to coffee quality. Front Street believes that Arabica coffee is better in quality when grown above 1,200 meters. In the first and second years after planting, the coffee tree mainly undergoes vegetative growth, and only in the third year and afterward does it begin to flower and bear fruit.
Flowering: After the dry season, the coffee tree will bloom on rainy days. The first flowering period of a coffee tree is around the age of about 3 years. The flowers are white and grow in clusters on the second branch of the coffee tree, with 5 to 6 petals. At this time, you can smell the rich jasmine fragrance emitted by the pure white flowers.
Fruiting: A few months after the coffee flowers wither, the coffee tree begins to bear fruit. The newly formed coffee fruit is green, and as it slowly matures, its color changes from green to yellow, and after fully ripening it turns red.
Picking: Coffee farmers begin picking when the coffee fruit is ripe. The best picking method is manual selective picking, choosing only fully ripe red fruit. Training a skilled coffee picker requires a great deal of cost. As the saying goes, "Who knows that every grain on the plate is hard work?" Whether it is rice, coffee beans, or other crops, behind all cultivation is a group of farmers carefully tending them. Front Street reminds everyone here not to waste all hard-earned food.
Alright, back to the topic. Now the most famous place in the world for growing Typica is none other than Jamaica's Front Street Blue Mountain Coffee. Next, through roasting, cupping, and brewing, Front Street will look at how the flavor of Jamaican Blue Mountain Typica coffee performs. The Blue Mountains are located in eastern Jamaica, at an altitude of 1,000 to 1,700 meters. The Blue Mountains lie in the coffee-growing belt, with fertile volcanic soil, fresh air, no pollution, a humid climate, and fog and rain all year round (average precipitation is 1,980 millimeters, and the temperature is around 27 degrees). Such a climate has created the world-renowned Jamaican Front Street Blue Mountain Coffee. Only Blue Mountain grown in this region is authentic Front Street Blue Mountain Coffee. Blue Mountain Typica was transplanted from Martinique to Jamaica's Blue Mountains in the 1720s. After more than 200 years, Blue Mountain Typica evolved better disease resistance, especially stronger resistance to fruit rot than general Typica. However, once Blue Mountain Typica leaves Jamaica, it cannot replicate its sweet and subtly fragrant characteristics.
The two Front Street Blue Mountain coffees currently listed by Front Street come from Clifton Farm, and Clifton Estate is also the only estate in the Blue Mountain growing region with Rainforest Alliance certification. Before 2019, Clifton Farm's Blue Mountain coffee always used the washed method to process green coffee beans. During processing, the peel and pulp are first removed, and the beans are allowed to ferment for 12 to 18 hours. Then the fermented beans are placed in a pool and pushed back and forth, using the friction of the beans and the force of flowing water to wash the coffee beans until smooth and clean. After washing, the coffee beans are still wrapped in the parchment layer, with a moisture content of 50%, and must be dried in the sun to reduce the moisture content to 12% to 14%; otherwise, they will continue to ferment and become moldy and spoiled. After that, the coffee beans are sorted and then stored in dedicated warehouses.
In the new 2020 harvest season, Clifton Farm launched Blue Mountain coffee beans with natural processing for the first time, which was truly novel. Jamaica has a tropical rainforest climate, with rainy seasons from May to June and September to November each year, among which January and May have the most showers. However, the harvest and processing season for Jamaican Blue Mountain coffee is from February to June each year, half of which falls in the rainy season, so using natural processing is obviously impractical. In addition, the quality of traditionally naturally processed coffee is unstable, and coffee quality depends entirely on the weather. Moreover, the labor cost of higher-quality natural processing is higher than methods such as washing. When coffee fruit is dried in the sun on the drying yard, it needs to be turned manually every few hours to maintain ventilation, reducing mold while ensuring even drying. Such a thankless processing method was even harder to carry out in Jamaica at the time. FrontStreet Coffee Blue Mountain Coffee Roasting Insights
Front Street Washed Blue Mountain: Charge when the roaster temperature reaches 170°C, set the damper to 3, and after 1 minute adjust the heat to 140°C, keeping the damper unchanged. Roast until 5 minutes 10 seconds, at 153°C, when the bean surface turns yellow, the grassy smell completely disappears, and dehydration is complete. Adjust the heat to 115°C and the damper to 4; at 8 minutes 00 seconds, wrinkles and dark spots appear on the bean surface, and the toast aroma clearly turns into coffee aroma, which can be defined as the prelude to first crack. At this time, listen clearly for the sound of the first crack. First crack begins at 8 minutes 12 seconds. Reduce the heat to 90°C and open the damper fully (adjusting the heat must be done very carefully, not so low that there is no cracking sound), and discharge at 201.3°C.
Front Street Natural Blue Mountain: Charge at 165°C, heat 130, damper set to 3; turning point at 1 minute 32 seconds, when the roaster temperature is 95.8°C, keep the heat unchanged; at 3 minutes adjust the damper to 4, and at 4 minutes increase the heat to 140. At 6 minutes 30 seconds, the bean surface turns yellow, the grassy smell completely disappears, and it enters the dehydration stage. At 8 minutes 36 seconds, wrinkles and dark spots appear on the bean surface, and the toast aroma clearly turns into coffee aroma, which can be defined as the prelude to first crack. At this time, listen clearly for the sound of the first crack. First crack begins at 10 minutes 06 seconds. After first crack, develop for 3 minutes and discharge at 198.5°C. FrontStreet Coffee Blue Mountain Coffee Cupping Report
FrontStreet Coffee conducts cupping within 8 to 24 hours after roasting sample coffee beans. The cupping bowls generally used by FrontStreet Coffee's cupping staff are 200-milliliter ceramic bowls, marked with scale lines at 150 milliliters and 200 milliliters. According to SCAA standards, the TDS of water is about 150 ppm. Too low TDS easily causes over-extraction, while too high TDS affects mouthfeel and easily causes under-extraction. The water temperature used for cupping is 94°C. According to SCAA standards, the cupping grind size is controlled so that 70% to 75% passes through a No. 20 standard sieve (0.85 millimeters). The ratio is 11 grams of coffee powder to 200 milliliters of hot water, that is, 1 to 18.18, so that the extracted concentration falls exactly within the golden cup range of 1.15% to 1.35%. Steeping time is 4 minutes. Front Street Washed Blue Mountain Coffee Cupping
Dry aroma: roasted peanut, hazelnut, melon, chocolate Wet aroma: oolong tea, caramel, honey, chocolate, almond Flavor: roasted nuts, chocolate, almond, melon, honey, balanced sweet-acidic-bitter
Front Street Natural Blue Mountain Coffee Cupping Dry aroma: nuts, woody Wet aroma: caramel Flavor: berries, smoked plum, mulberry, dark cocoa, nuts, slight fermented note
FrontStreet Coffee Blue Mountain Coffee Brewing Recommendations
Dripper: kono dripper Coffee dose: 15 grams Coffee-to-water ratio: 1 to 15 Water temperature: 88 to 89°C Grind size: medium-coarse grind (75% passing through No. 20 standard sieve)
Front Street brewing method: In the first stage, pour 30 grams of water for a 30-second bloom, then pour 95 grams (the digital scale shows about 125 grams), completing the pour in about 1 minute. When the water level drops to two-thirds of the coffee bed, pour the remaining 100 grams (the digital scale shows about 225 grams), completing the pour in about 1 minute 40 seconds to 1 minute 45 seconds. Dripping is completed at 2 minutes 05 seconds to 2 minutes 10 seconds. Remove the dripper and finish extraction.
[Front Street Washed Blue Mountain]: The entry has flavors of dark chocolate and nuts, high cleanliness, very bright, good body, and balanced acidity, sweetness, and bitterness.
[Front Street Natural Blue Mountain]: The entry has the sweetness of brown sugar accompanied by the acidity of berries, with nutty cocoa flavors in the middle and back sections, a creamy mouthfeel, rich and obvious layering, and a finish that brings out the aroma of walnuts.
The above content is compiled by CoffeeHunters, a coffee news website.
