What Makes Typica Coffee Different From Other Arabica Coffee Varieties?

Typica coffee is treated as the prototype of all Arabica coffee varieties. It began in southwestern Ethiopia, then spread through Yemen, India, Java, and Dutch botanical gardens before reaching South and Central America. The tree's young top leaves are bronze-red, which earned it the nickname Red Top Coffee, but it resists disease poorly and yields little.

Typica beans are Arabica beans, yet Arabica covers far more than Typica; Arabica, Robusta, and Liberica are the three main species. The trunk is slender and lateral branches sit at roughly 50 to 70 degrees to the stem, with plants reaching about 5 meters, so picking is labor-intensive. Lincang, Yunnan lots show how origin shifts the cup.

Typica is widely recognized as the prototype of all Arabica coffee varieties and is an essential part of coffee variety knowledge. It originated from the birthplace of Arabica coffee in southwestern Ethiopia and spread with seeds to Yemen, India, Java, Dutch botanical gardens, and eventually reached South and Central America. The young leaves at the top of the Typica coffee tree are bronze-red, earning it the nickname "Red Top Coffee," but it has poor disease resistance and low yield, making it difficult to cultivate. This article will guide you through a comprehensive understanding of this ancient and elegant coffee variety, covering Typica's botanical characteristics, spread history, flavor profiles in different regions, and the pour-over extraction parameters used by Front Street Coffee for Typica grown in Lincang, Yunnan.

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Typica Varietal is one of the Arabica coffee varieties, also translated as Dipikas or Tibika. The earliest coffee variety discovered by humans was Arabica. To be specific: Typica coffee beans are Arabica coffee beans, but Arabica coffee beans are not necessarily Typica coffee beans.

In biological terms, coffee varieties are divided into three major species: Arabica, Robusta, and Liberica. The earliest coffee variety discovered by humans was Arabica. Arabica coffee accounts for 70%-80% of the world's economically cultivated coffee production. It has a variety of excellent flavors and acidity profiles, low bitterness, and high sweetness, but relatively low yield.

Typica is currently recognized as the prototype of all Arabica coffee varieties. It can be traced back to the birthplace of Arabica coffee in southwestern Ethiopia and is one of the most important varieties in Arabica coffee.

What are the characteristics of the Typica variety?

The most distinctive feature of the Typica coffee tree is that the top leaves exhibit a reddish bronze color, hence it is also called "Red Top Coffee." Its trunk is slender, the branches are thin and slightly inclined, with lateral branches forming a 50-70° angle with the vertical stem. The plant grows to about 5 meters tall, making manual picking relatively difficult.

Right next to the entrance of Front Street Coffee, there happens to be a pot of Typica and a pot of Catimor growing. While enjoying your coffee, you might want to take a look. Typica coffee beans are relatively large, elongated, with pointed and slightly upturned ends, somewhat like an egg. Typica coffee beans often have a citrusy acidity with a sweet finish, praised by many as elegant and clean-tasting coffee beans. Jamaica Blue Mountain coffee is of the Typica variety.

Due to its extremely poor disease resistance, Typica struggles to resist the most common diseases such as leaf rust and berry disease, and its yield is also very low. A coffee tree infected with leaf rust is equivalent to having an incurable disease, eventually withering or even dying. As a cash crop, Typica with its low yield and vulnerability to disease makes it difficult to achieve profitability, so many growers choose to give up and switch to other varieties with better disease resistance. Growing elegant and pure-flavored Typica coffee beans is no simple task. Every step — from innate terroir conditions, plant management, fruit harvesting, to post-processing — must be fully ensured for the coffee beans to develop positive flavors and mouthfeel. This also means that producing high-quality Typica requires more labor costs and dedicated research and techniques.

The Spread History of Typica Coffee

A batch of wild Arabica coffee trees collected in southern Ethiopia was brought to Yemen between the 15th and 16th centuries. Then by 1700, the seeds of these coffee trees were brought to the Malabar Coast of India and West Java of Indonesia, and were simultaneously named Typica. In 1760, Typica seeds were sent from Java to the botanical gardens in the Netherlands, then in 1722 were brought to the South American colony of Suriname, and later in 1727 were sent to northern Brazil.

By the late 1800s, Typica coffee cultivation could be seen in Central America, South America, and Jamaica in the Caribbean. Later, Typica from Central America also spread to Africa, Asia, and then to the Americas.

As a crop, whenever Typica arrives in a new region, it modifies its genes according to the local terroir and climate to better adapt to the environment. Therefore, Typica coffee from different regions varies in flavor, but in terms of mouthfeel, it is the cleanest among all Arabica varieties.

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

Currently, island climate regions such as Papua New Guinea, Jamaica, and Hawaii Kona mainly cultivate the Typica variety. China's Yunnan and Ethiopia have small amounts of Typica cultivation.

Among the Typica coffee beans currently available at Front Street, there are Paradise Bird from Papua New Guinea, Jamaica Blue Mountain No. 1, Tanzania Kilimanjaro, and Front Street Coffee's own home-grown Yunnan Typica small-bean coffee.

Among the Typica coffee beans from the three regions, the one that best embodies Typica's clean, serene character and balanced, mellow mouthfeel is none other than Jamaica Blue Mountain No. 1! After medium-dark roasting by Front Street Coffee, Blue Mountain No. 1 exhibits a rich dark chocolate aroma, subtle citrus acidity, and caramel sweetness. It is a coffee bean with balanced acidity, sweetness, and bitterness, and a solid, mellow mouthfeel.

Paradise Bird, also grown in an island climate terroir, has earned the title of "Little Blue Mountain," so Front Street Coffee also uses a medium-dark roast. Although it is also a coffee bean with balanced acidity, sweetness, and bitterness at the same roast level, Paradise Bird as a whole is not as mellow as Blue Mountain No. 1, but it is very pleasant to drink.

The Typica coffee that Front Street Coffee grows at 1,300m altitude in Lincang, Yunnan, has a much cleaner mouthfeel and flavor expression compared to Catimor small-bean coffee from other Yunnan regions. This is thanks to the inherently serene and clean characteristics of the Typica variety itself.

Regarding roasting, Front Street believes that Yunnan coffee should have a mellow coffee aroma while also possessing a certain degree of acidity, so Front Street uses a medium roast level. For daily store offerings, Front Street extracts using the pour-over method, hoping to present the coffee's own aromas for everyone to taste.

Pour-over black coffee is not only the daily extraction method used by Front Street Coffee baristas, but also a method that many coffee enthusiasts can easily do at home. Considering that Yunnan Typica coffee leans toward a balanced mouthfeel — meaning it should not have overly high acidity or heavy bitterness — Front Street prefers to use a V60 dripper with a medium-fine grind size and medium water temperature for extraction.

Front Street uses corresponding parameters for brewing different coffee beans. For darker-roasted coffee beans, such as Mandheling coffee and Brazil coffee, Front Street uses water at 87-88°C and a medium-coarse grind. For lighter-roasted coffee beans, such as Ethiopia Yirgacheffe and Panama Geisha, Front Street uses high temperatures of 91-93°C and a medium-fine grind to bring out the aromas of high-altitude hard beans. Returning to the brewing of Front Street Yunnan small-bean coffee, Front Street uses medium water temperature and grind to highlight the balanced, harmonious mouthfeel.

Brewing Parameters:

Dripper: Hario V60

Dose: 15g

Water Temperature: 90°C

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

Water-to-Coffee Ratio: 1:15

Three-Pour Method: Wet the coffee bed with water at twice the weight of the coffee grounds, forming a dome, and let it bloom for 30s. Then pour in a slow stream in a circular motion from the center outward until reaching 125g, pause. Wait for the coffee bed to drop to half the height of the dripper, then continue pouring the third stage with the same slow stream until reaching 225g. Wait until all the coffee liquid has filtered through, then remove the dripper. Total time is approximately 2 minutes.

Front Street Coffee's Yunnan Typica coffee uses the traditional natural processing method and medium roasting. After brewing, it exhibits a plum-like acidity, nutty aroma, brown sugar-like caramel sweetness, and a black tea-like lingering finish.

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