What Flavors Do Typica Coffee Beans Have? Characteristics of Yunnan Typica Coffee

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The Evolution of Single Origin Coffee

Tasting exceptional coffee while contemplating universal issues, we often forget about its God-given, precious, and cherished original form. Coffee beans are not born this way—they are the crystallization of much hard work.

The Old Era: Single Origin as Black Coffee

In the old era, single origin coffee was synonymous with black coffee.

Black Coffee—simply coffee without milk, sugar, syrup, or similar additives. The Cantonese "Zhai Fei" and the Shanghai elite's "Qing Ka" both refer to this concept.

Perhaps because coffee in the old era was difficult to swallow without sugar and milk, the definition of single origin coffee was later extended. The serving was still a cup of black coffee, accompanied by sugar and milk for customers to add themselves.

The Middle Era: Emphasizing Quality Over Singularity

In the "middle era," single origin coffee began to emphasize "quality" (品), not necessarily "singularity" (单).

During this period, Americano was categorized under espresso coffee, while single origin coffee formed its own major category. Americano was priced lower than single origin options.

Colombia, Brazil, Mandheling, Mamba, Blue Mountain (Blue Mountain flavor), and the siphon pot were hallmark products of this era.

The New Era: Precision and Clarity

In the new era, single origin coffee has become more clearly and precisely defined.

It distinguishes itself from commodity beans and regional beans, standing in contrast to blended beans. It emphasizes origin flavors.

Today's "single origin" refers to coffee from a single estate or cooperative at most. Some large estates are divided into many plots, giving rise to single plot, micro-lot, and other designations. Encouraged by various green bean competitions and policies, coffee farmers spare no effort, treating cultivation and processing like independent experiments.

The Importance of Coffee Varieties

Modern specialty coffee places greater emphasis on coffee varieties. For a cup of excellent coffee, the variety is most important—harvesting and post-processing are merely enhancements.

There are over 500 species of coffee trees and 6,000 varieties, most of which are tropical trees and shrubs. There are four main types of coffee trees worldwide, but only two possess significant commercial value and are widely cultivated. The coffee beans they produce are superior to those from other coffee tree varieties.

Typica: The Ancient Variety

Typica is Ethiopia's oldest native variety, from which most Arabica varieties are derived. Typica has bronze-colored young leaves and oval or slender, pointed beans. It offers elegant flavors but has weak constitution, poor disease resistance, and low yield. Excellent estate beans like Jamaica Blue Mountain, Sumatra Mandheling, and Hawaii Kona all belong to the Typica variety. Bronze-colored young leaves are one of its characteristic features.

Although the most common coffee variety in Yunnan is Catimor, which has Robusta heritage, this is not absolute. With coffee's development, the concept of specialty coffee has gradually become known. Furthermore, Yunnan initially cultivated Typica varieties, which is why Yunnan coffee is called small-bean coffee! FrontStreet Coffee's [Yunnan Huaguoshan] bean is a Typica variety.

FrontStreet Coffee's Brewing Recommendations

FrontStreet Coffee brewing parameters:

V60/90°C/1:15 ratio/2 minutes

Flavor Notes:

Brown sugar, caramel, melon

Important Notice :

前街咖啡 FrontStreet Coffee has moved to new addredd:

FrontStreet Coffee Address: 315,Donghua East Road,GuangZhou

Tel:020 38364473