Arabica Gesha Typica Coffee Bean Varieties Introduction Are Robusta Coffee Beans Delicious?

The world's first coffee tree was discovered in Ethiopia, Africa. As wars progressed, coffee trees were continuously transplanted and eventually spread globally. A small coffee bean gradually entered people's daily lives, and coffee rose in popularity around the world.

1. Coffee Arabica

Accounting for three-quarters of the world's production, Arabica coffee is of excellent quality. Because the coffee tree itself is very sensitive to heat and humidity, its growing conditions require highland climates at least 900 meters above sea level. The higher the altitude, the more the coffee beans range from green to light green in color, with an oval shape and curved creases. Coffee beans roasted from this variety have excellent quality, and this variety has lower caffeine content (1.1-1.7%), making it more beneficial for human consumption.

Regarding the name "Arabica," it's easy to mistakenly assume its origin is the Arabian Peninsula. In reality, it actually originated in Ethiopia. The reason it's called Arabica is entirely due to the key geographical location of the Arabian Peninsula, which connects Asia, Europe, and Africa. Before the Age of Discovery, this was a hub for world cultural exchange. Just as ancient Indian numbers were introduced to Europe through Arabs and became known as Arabic numbers due to limited information channels and information lag at that time, Arabica received its name through a similar process of long evolution.

It wasn't until 1753 that the botanist Linnaeus mistakenly believed this coffee originated from the Middle East and gave it the scientific name Coffea arabica L. In 2002, a coffee genetic research project funded by Europe discovered that the coffee gene diversity in places like Yemen was far lower than in Ethiopia, which finally helped Arabica find its true homeland.

The Arabica coffee variety is the most traditional Arab coffee variety. Originally native to East Africa (Ethiopia), before the 15th century, coffee was long monopolized by the Arab world, which is why Europeans called it "Arab coffee." Originally, all commercial coffee in the world was of the Arabica variety. It wasn't until the late 19th century when a large-scale disease outbreak occurred that growers began searching for other disease-resistant varieties. Currently, Arabica coffee remains the main coffee variety, accounting for about 3/4 of the world's total coffee production. It is mainly grown in Latin American countries, with some cultivation in Indonesia and Pacific islands. Currently, the world's largest coffee-producing region, Brazil, has geographical and climatic conditions very suitable for Arabica coffee growth, and the main coffee variety grown there is also Arabica. Brazil's coffee production accounts for more than 1/3 of the world's total production.

2. Robusta

Robusta originated in the Congo region of West Africa. We often compare Arabica with Robusta, but this isn't actually rigorous because these two are not even at the same level botanically. Robusta actually belongs to the Canephora species, also called the Congo species, which is similar to how Typica belongs to the Arabica species. However, unfortunately, only one variety named Robusta within the Canephora species could be commercialized and become well-known, so now Robusta has almost completely replaced Canephora as the代名词 for this species.

The global coffee growing belt lies between the Tropic of Cancer and the Tropic of Capricorn, and Robusta is no exception. However, Robusta's growing conditions are not as demanding as Arabica's. Robusta can grow at lower altitudes and higher temperatures. It grows faster than Arabica and has higher tolerance to extreme weather conditions. Robusta is widely grown in countries such as Vietnam, Brazil, and India. Hainan in China also grows Robusta.

Pest resistance: Robusta's caffeine content ranges from 2.7% to 4%, twice that of Arabica. Caffeine acts as a natural pesticide for plants, protecting them from most insect damage.

Disease resistance: We generally know that Arabica has 44 chromosomes while Robusta has 22 chromosomes. Generally, the more chromosomes, the higher the gene complexity and the more advanced it is, but Arabica is self-pollinating while Robusta is cross-pollinating. Pollination involves the genetic process.

Additionally, Arabica coffee is a coffee category. Coffees we commonly talk about like Typica, Bourbon, and Geisha all belong to Arabica coffee. Today, FrontStreet Coffee will introduce you to the coffee varieties within Arabica.

Let's start with the renowned Geisha coffee variety from Panama's La Esmeralda estate. The Geisha variety was first discovered in 1931 from the Geisha forest in Ethiopia, then sent to Kenya's coffee research institute. Uganda and Tanzania subsequently introduced the Geisha variety, and Costa Rica introduced it in 1953. Finally, Panama introduced the Geisha variety from Costa Rica. This is the legendary history of how Geisha coffee entered Panama.

The journey to fame for Geisha coffee was not easy, so let FrontStreet Coffee slowly tell you the story. After Panama introduced Geisha coffee, it wasn't widely planted but used as windbreaks for coffee farms. At this point, FrontStreet Coffee must comment - using Geisha coffee as windbreaks was such a luxurious thing! Nowadays, red label Geisha coffee beans must be obtained through bidding. The owner of La Esmeralda estate discovered that this windbreak coffee tree variety had a flavor much better than other coffee trees. Afterward, the owner of La Esmeralda estate entered Geisha coffee in the Panama green coffee competition and won first place.

FrontStreet Coffee has recently listed several Geisha coffees. Through cupping, FrontStreet Coffee compared FrontStreet Coffee's La Esmeralda washed green label Geisha and FrontStreet Coffee's La Esmeralda natural processed green label Geisha coffee, finding that the acidity of FrontStreet Coffee's washed green label Geisha is more pronounced than FrontStreet Coffee's natural processed green label Geisha. The lemon acid and citrus-like mouthfeel form a stark contrast with the natural processed green label Geisha. FrontStreet Coffee's natural processed green label has more obvious sweetness, somewhat similar to passion fruit mouthfeel. Through these two experiments, FrontStreet Coffee has also fully demonstrated that washed processed coffee beans have a cleaner mouthfeel, while natural processed coffee beans have even better sweetness and aroma than washed processed coffee beans.

After talking about the incredibly popular Geisha coffee, FrontStreet Coffee will now introduce the world's oldest Typica and Bourbon varieties. Many of the coffee beans listed by FrontStreet Coffee are Typica varieties. For example, FrontStreet Coffee's Jamaica Blue Mountain coffee, FrontStreet Coffee's Indonesia Mandheling, and FrontStreet Coffee's Yunnan Huaguoshan coffee. Typica is grown very widely globally. The Dutch once planted Typica coffee in Java, Indonesia. Later, the French brought this coffee to the Caribbean, and then it spread to Central and South America. Because Typica's yield is notoriously low and it's easily affected by leaf rust disease, most regions don't plant Typica coffee exclusively.

Typica coffee has excellent mouthfeel with high sweetness. Influenced by factors like weather, terrain, and climate in each location, even though they are all Typica varieties, the flavor of grown Typica coffee is not the same. For example, FrontStreet Coffee's Indonesia Mandheling coffee is famous for its wild herbal medicine flavor. Coupled with Indonesia's high temperature and rainy weather, to shorten the natural processing time and improve economic benefits, a local特色的 wet-hulling method is used to process coffee cherries. This makes the flavor and body of Mandheling produced in Indonesia very high. Besides the rich herbal medicine flavor, the aftertaste also carries a hint of sweetness. However, most coffee varieties now planted in Sumatra are Catimor varieties because Catimor varieties have high yields and better disease resistance than Typica.

However, Typica planted in Jamaica's Blue Mountains doesn't have the same flavor body as Indonesian coffee. Take FrontStreet Coffee's listed FrontStreet Coffee Jamaica Blue Mountain No. 1 coffee for example. FrontStreet Coffee's this FrontStreet Coffee Blue Mountain Typica has a very balanced mouthfeel. The sweet and sour sensations are perfectly blended in FrontStreet Coffee's Blue Mountain coffee. It's not an exaggeration to say it's one of the best-tasting coffees in the world.

Influenced by environmental factors, Typica variety genes have also changed, and Bourbon is a mutant of Typica. Bourbon variety has higher yield than Typica but requires shade trees. Because the top leaves and young leaves are green, it's called green-topped coffee. Its name comes from its original Bourbon Island, which is now Réunion Island. The French exported this coffee overseas. Bourbon coffee cherries are small and have higher pulp density than general coffee cherries, so it also has higher sweetness and bright acidity.

Brazil, one of the world's largest coffee exporters, grows many Bourbon varieties. For example, Caturra and Pacas varieties are mutants of Bourbon. Bourbon generally refers to Red Bourbon. Brazilian Red Bourbon, when brewed, has very classic nut and chocolate notes, accompanied by rich peanut and cream flavors. FrontStreet Coffee's Brazilian Red Bourbon coffee flavor has this unique Brazilian flavor.

In addition to Red Bourbon, Brazil also discovered the Yellow Bourbon variety, which mainly grows in high-altitude environments. Yellow Bourbon processed naturally carries Bourbon's inherent nutty flavor, balanced acidity, and slight bitterness. For example, FrontStreet Coffee's listed FrontStreet Coffee Brazil Queen Estate Yellow Bourbon coffee perfectly interprets the flavor of Yellow Bourbon coffee, with obvious sugarcane sweetness, accompanied by light lemon aroma, rich nutty flavor, and an aftertaste with distinct dark chocolate flavor. The overall mouthfeel is rich and thick.

According to FrontStreet Coffee's understanding, Kenya's two main varieties SL-28 and SL-34 were researched by Scott Laboratories. Among them, SL-28 originates from the Bourbon variety, while SL-34 originates from the Typica coffee variety. FrontStreet Coffee's Kenya coffee beans have rich berry acidic aroma and obvious acidity with fermented wine aroma, which is very different in acidity quality from FrontStreet Coffee's Ethiopian Yirgacheffe's lemon and citrus notes, even though both are African beans.

This is just a small part about coffee varieties. With technological development, coffee varieties are increasing. Through continuous hybridization, current coffee yields continue to improve and disease resistance continues to strengthen. FrontStreet Coffee also believes that with social development, coffee flavors will continue to enrich.

For more specialty coffee beans, please add FrontStreet Coffee on private WeChat (FrontStreet Coffee), WeChat ID: kaixinguoguo0925

Important Notice :

前街咖啡 FrontStreet Coffee has moved to new addredd:

FrontStreet Coffee Address: 315,Donghua East Road,GuangZhou

Tel:020 38364473