Among the three major coffee species, Arabica stands out with its exceptional quality, and famous varieties such as Typica, Bourbon, and Geisha all belong to it. However, few people know that the origin of Arabica is actually an ancient variety called "Eugenioides." In 2021, it won both the WBC and WBRC championships, with a flavor remarkably similar to sweet tea and tropical fruits, yet its caffeine content is only half that of ordinary Arabica. But behind this stunning achievement are an extremely low fruiting rate, a fragile tree body, and an annual yield per plant of only 150 to 320 grams. Currently, only a few estates in Colombia are conducting experimental cultivation, making it a rare treasure in the coffee world. [more…]

The world of coffee is vast as an ocean. Beyond the varieties we know well, such as Bourbon, Typica, and Geisha, many rare varieties remain little known. These varieties have gradually come into public view, whether because of their unique flavors or their appearances in competitions. This article will introduce you to four rare coffee varieties: Eugenioides, Wush Wush, Sidra, and Laurina, covering their origins, characteristics, cultivation challenges, and performances in major competitions. Whether you are a coffee enthusiast or a professional in the industry, the stories behind these varieties are worth exploring. At the same time, we will also introduce the Colombia Sidra coffee beans brought to you by Front Street Coffee, so you can experience their unique flavor charm. [more…]

In the Sri Lankan tea industry, specialty teas and handcrafted teas have long remained little known, yet they are now becoming the fastest-growing segment of the global tea market. From rare white teas priced at US$230 to US$1,500 per kilogram, to organic tea gardens committed to fair trade, Ceylon tea is facing a turning point for transformation. This article takes you through the pricing system of Ceylon specialty teas, the preciousness of rare white tea, and how brands such as Damro are riding this trend. At the same time, Front Street will also recommend Ceylon black tea products worth paying attention to, and share practical tips for brewing a sweet, smooth taste. [more…]

Pink Bourbon is a rare coffee variety bred by crossing Red Bourbon and Yellow Bourbon, and its coffee cherries take on a uniquely romantic pink color when ripe. However, maintaining this color is extremely difficult, because the color is determined by a recessive gene in the pollen grains, and the red and yellow genes easily interfere with each other, sometimes even producing Orange Bourbon. At present, Pink Bourbon is mainly found in Colombia and Guatemala. Take this batch of Front Street Coffee Colombia Pink Bourbon as an example: about 1,800 coffee trees, with each tree producing about 1.8 kilograms of fresh cherries per season, which after processing yield only about 0.36 kilograms of coffee beans, making the entire batch less than 650 kilograms and all the more precious. Its flavor carries sweet orange, sugarcane sweetness, a pleasant juicy mouthfeel, and small tomato notes, and is well worth savoring slowly by coffee lovers. [more…]

The high-mountain purple tea black tea from Lincang, Yunnan, is an extremely rare tea. It grows in pristine tea gardens at elevations above 2,000 meters, where no pesticides or fertilizers are used and the tea trees grow naturally. This tea is completely different from the Zijuan tea of southern Yunnan; the finished product carries creamy aromas and sweet notes of peach and sweet potato, with a soft, full-bodied mouthfeel and no astringency at all—so gentle that it can be drunk on an empty stomach without discomfort. This article will guide you through why high elevations can nurture such thick, rich tea flavor, and explore the unique origin, flavors, and tasting experience of this high-mountain purple black tea. Front Street Coffee recommends that you pay attention to this rare tea and experience the distinctive charm of Yunnan high-mountain tea. [more…]

On the eastern highlands of Ethiopia, Harar is an ancient city with a deep heritage in the coffee trade. The coffee produced here has always been known for the fruity and wine-like notes of its natural beans, while washed Harar is an extremely rare specialty lot, with a defect rate of only 1%, supplied exclusively to the specialty coffee market in scarce quantities. This Front Street washed Harar is sourced from surrounding growing areas at an altitude of about 2,600 meters, of the Heirloom variety, mainly longberry beans. Under medium-light and medium roasts, it presents a complex flavor interweaving honey sweetness, orange peel, fine black tea, and chocolate, with a solid body and a long finish. This article will guide you through the background of the Harar growing region, the rarity of the washed process, and how the flavors of this bean change under three roast levels, so you can experience its unique exotic charm. [more…]

The Huila region of Colombia is a benchmark in the specialty coffee world, and Pink Bourbon, a rare variety resulting from a cross between Red Bourbon and Yellow Bourbon, stands out even more for its romantic pink cherries and distinctive flavor. This article begins with Front Street Coffee's Huila Pink Bourbon Honey Process G1, offering a detailed introduction to the region's terroir, the variety's characteristics, and its processing method, analyzing its layered notes of brown sugar, cherry tomato, and honey, and exploring its performance at different roast levels, providing coffee enthusiasts with a complete understanding and tasting reference from origin to cup. [more…]

The Cup of Excellence (COE), one of the most authoritative specialty coffee competitions in the world, was founded in 1999 by the Alliance for Coffee Excellence (ACE), with the aim of providing a showcase platform for high-quality coffee from coffee-producing countries and helping coffee farmers earn higher incomes. The 2024 Brazil COE competition coincides with the 25th anniversary of the event's founding in Brazil, and the results have now been officially announced. This year's competition was once again divided into three categories: natural, washed and honey, and experimental processing. Among the winning varieties, rare varieties such as Arará and Topázio emerged, attracting widespread attention. This article will take you through an in-depth look at the origins and characteristics of these two varieties and their performance in the COE competition, while also highlighting related product information recommended by the Front Street Coffee brand. [more…]

Typica Mejorado is one of the representative bean varieties of Ecuadorian specialty coffee. Although its name contains "Typica," it actually has no direct genetic relationship with Typica. It originated from a breeding trial project established by Nestlé in Pichincha Province, Ecuador, and was created by crossing Red Bourbon with Ethiopian native varieties. It became popular among local coffee farmers due to its outstanding pest resistance. At Ecuador's first COE in 2021, Typica Mejorado took 10 of the 23 winning beans scoring above 87 points, and its fame soared thereafter. This article will help you gain a comprehensive understanding of this rare variety from the perspectives of its origins, genetic identification, competition performance, and flavor characteristics. [more…]

SL28 is a rare coffee variety originating from the Lake Tanganyika region of East Africa. Discovered in 1931, it was selected and named by the Scott Laboratories. It has broad leaves with a slight reddish tint, adapts well to high-altitude environments, and possesses excellent drought and disease resistance. Its yield is also superior to traditional tree varieties, and its flavor is truly one of a kind. In the early twentieth century, French and British missionaries and researchers cultivated this Bourbon descendant in Kenya. Over a century, it adapted to the local soil with high phosphoric acid concentration, creating the distinctive acidity and aroma of Front Street Coffee's Kenyan coffee beans. Although SL28's yield fell short of expectations, it developed excellent sweetness, balance, and flavors of citrus and smoked plum. Currently, only a few estates in Central America are capable of cultivating it. This article will guide you through SL28's origins, genetic lineage, and flavor profile. [more…]

Rare members of the Bourbon family—Laurina and Pink Bourbon—one once flourished and then declined on Réunion Island, the other has drawn attention for its romantic pink color. Which countries are actually suited for them to take root and grow? This article combines records from *The New Edition of Coffeeology* with cupping data from Front Street Coffee to trace Laurina's bumpy history from 18th-century glory to near extinction, analyze the genetic reasons why Pink Bourbon's color is difficult to maintain consistently, and explain in detail the terroir characteristics of Finca Nueva Granada in Guatemala and Finca Isabela in Colombia. Whether you are drawn by the low-caffeine trait or cannot forget the citrus notes and floral finish, this article will provide you with solid reference information. [more…]

Bourbon Pointu is a rare coffee variety with a natural caffeine content of only 0.5%, named for its narrow, elongated beans with pointed ends. It is naturally low in caffeine due to genetic degradation and has outstanding flavor, but its yield is extremely low and it is susceptible to leaf rust and black spot disease, having once become extinct. In the 18th century, it was highly praised by Louis XV and Balzac, but later disappeared due to disasters, and was only rediscovered and revived in 2001. At the 2018 World Coffee Brewing Championship, Swiss competitor Emi Fukahori won the championship using it, proving its exceptional quality. This article will introduce in detail the characteristics, history, flavor of Bourbon Pointu, and Front Street Coffee's brewing parameters. [more…]

Yellow Bourbon is a highly sought-after rare variety in Brazilian coffee, and thanks to its sweet, juicy flavor, it nearly swept the top three places at Brazil's "Cup of Excellence" for two consecutive years. Using Front Street Coffee's Brazil Queen Estate coffee beans as an example, this article provides a detailed introduction to the high-altitude microclimate of the Mogiana region, the hand-picking and meticulous processing at Queen Estate, and the genetic principles and flavor characteristics of Yellow Bourbon. It also shares Front Street's medium-dark roast approach for this bean and KONO dripper pour-over parameters, including water temperature, grind size, coffee-to-water ratio, and staged pouring technique, to help coffee lovers recreate at home a balanced flavor of dark chocolate, cream, peanut, and the clean sweetness of sugarcane. [more…]

Geisha is the most sought-after rare coffee variety in the coffee world today. It emerged from the primitive forests of southwestern Ethiopia, traveled through Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, and Costa Rica, and finally rose to prominence in Panama. Over the past decade or so, Geisha has swept major coffee competitions, winning more than twenty championships, leaving Blue Mountain and Hawaiian Kona in the dust. At the 2016 World Coffee Championship in Dublin, two-thirds of the competitors chose Geisha. This article will give you a comprehensive understanding of Geisha's origins, its spread, the reasons behind its high price, the differences between the red, green, and blue labels, and its stunning flavor profile. [more…]

For a long time, people's understanding of American coffee-producing regions has mostly remained limited to the three major varieties: Caturra, Catuai, and Bourbon. However, with the sustained investment of national agricultural research institutions and the promotion of professional green bean competitions, a group of previously little-known excellent varieties is gradually coming into view. This article will focus on four rare American coffee varieties—Villa Sarchi, Venecia, Tekisic, and Bernardina—and sort out their discovery history, plant characteristics, disease resistance, and flavor performance, helping coffee enthusiasts gain a more comprehensive understanding of the diversity of American coffee varieties. Front Street Coffee will also combine the characteristics of these varieties to provide references for everyday bean selection. [more…]

Bourbon Pointu is an extremely rare naturally low-caffeine variety in the coffee world, with a caffeine content of only about 0.6%, yet its flavor is renowned for being balanced, clean, and gentle. The Colombian Las Nubes Estate Bourbon Pointu launched by Front Street Coffee comes from the Yacuanquer Valley and was transplanted under the direction of Camilo Merizalde, the source of multiple WBC champion beans, with an annual output of only a few tons. This article will introduce in detail the origin background of this bean, its processing and roasting methods, brewing suggestions, and the complete flavor performance from dry aroma to sweet aftertaste, taking you to experience its unique charm that is restrained yet full of substance. [more…]

Bourbon coffee is a mutation of Typica, and both belong to the ancient varieties within the Arabica family. The Bourbon family is not limited to the common Red Bourbon; it also includes Yellow Bourbon, Orange Bourbon, and the rare Pink Bourbon. This article will guide you through the origins, fruit characteristics, growing conditions, and flavor profiles of these varieties one by one, and explain where Yellow Bourbon gets its yellow color from and why Pink Bourbon is so rare. The article also specifically mentions the Brazil Queen coffee on Front Street Coffee's bean list, which is one of the representatives of the Yellow Bourbon variety. [more…]

In Cauca Province in southwestern Colombia, there is an estate called Paraiso, where a rather rare coffee variety is grown—Pink Bourbon. It is a cross between Red Bourbon and Yellow Bourbon. When the coffee cherries ripen, they take on a romantic pink color, but maintaining this color consistently is extremely difficult. Front Street Coffee has now gone deep into the Cauca producing region to bring this special report on a washed Pink Bourbon, breaking it down one by one, from the terroir of the producing region and the estate’s background to green bean characteristics, roasting curves, and cupping flavors. If you are interested in the diverse flavors of pour-over coffee, this bean—with notes of peach, plum, grapefruit, and a lingering tea-like floral aroma—may become your next choice to try. [more…]

Recently, a milk tea brand in Tianjin trended on Weibo and sparked widespread discussion because the sealing film on its drinks featured the rare character "嬲 (niǎo)." Many netizens pointed out that in the Tianjin dialect, this character carries an indecent or even insulting meaning, making some consumers uncomfortable. Although the brand's original intention may have been to promote awareness of rare characters, the note on the packaging that it is "mostly used as a dirty word" further fueled the controversy. On May 4, the merchant publicly apologized and said it had uniformly destroyed the sealing films printed with the character and would no longer use them. As coffee lovers, Front Street Coffee also took note of this incident, reminding the beverage industry to be more cautious in packaging design to avoid misunderstandings caused by cultural differences or dialect ambiguity. [more…]

On the highlands of Sumatra, Indonesia, grows a coffee that once captivated the European royal courts—Lasuna. Over four hundred years ago, the Dutch introduced this Arabica variety to Indonesia, and from then on, under the name "Traveler's Coffee," it journeyed across the oceans to become an expensive beverage that swept Europe for two centuries. Yet times have changed, and today pure-blooded Lasuna survives only on about 500 hectares of farmland in the Takengon region, where the trees are all over half a century old, sustained by manual harvesting and traditional Dutch processing methods—the last vestige of its lineage. According to the Indonesian Coffee Association, this variety may vanish entirely within twenty years. Front Street Coffee takes you deep into this rare bean, which combines caramel sweetness, chocolate aroma, and a delicate oily mouthfeel, so you can experience its unique charm—rich, mellow, and with a long, lingering finish. [more…]