The Arabica Family Tree - Which Coffee Beans Belong to the Arabica Variety

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What kind of seeds am I buying?

Many friends, and even industry peers, have had this experience when buying green or roasted coffee beans: you see information about the coffee tree species.

When I saw a coffee bean from Kenya, I also wondered: what exactly are SL28 and SL34? Actually, these are two tree species that evolved from Bourbon gene mutations and are national treasures of Kenyan coffee. What is the story with tree species? What types are there? I will reveal that later.

What happened to this tree? It looks so impressive. Yes, this is the relationship between the various tree species in the Rubiaceae, the coffee family. The family trees of distant relatives are simply weak by comparison.

The Battle of Tree Species: Is Your Brother More Powerful?

Drink good beans directly? Who knows what species you are drinking. Speaking of tree species, one could really write a TV drama script.

A fierce and bloody struggle, empires competing for highlands, brothers turning against each other, love affairs within families: all of this in "The Storm of the Arabica Empire."

More than a thousand years ago, on the Ethiopian highlands, a pioneer in the coffee tree world showed humans its unmatched power through a flock of sheep, officially beginning its journey of world conquest.

Among them was a powerful tribe, Arabica. Although prone to various "noble diseases," it established a vast empire occupying 70-80% of the coffee world's territory through its excellent lineage in flavor, acidity and mouthfeel during its conquests.

Meanwhile, the Robusta tribe, with its tenacious vitality, occupied only 20-30% of global territory and could hardly compare, let alone the declining Liberica tribe.

In the Empire Established by Arabica

Three major clans, the Ethiopian native species, Typica and Bourbon, form a three-way standoff.

Typica

As the eldest brother, Typica has a relatively weak constitution and has appeared less often in recent years, with several outstanding sons maintaining its territory. Below are some common varieties.

For example, Maragogype, three times larger than regular Arabica, is famous for its record-setting size.

Blue Mountain, famous for Jamaican Blue Mountain coffee, Hawaiian Kona and Sumatran Typica are all quite well known.

Bourbon

The Bourbon clan has performed remarkably well. The Mocha round-bean immigrant became famous after moving to Bourbon Island. Several of its most outstanding branches include many well-known varieties: Caturra, Pacas, Yellow Bourbon, Pacamara with its extremely low caffeine content and unique flavor, Vilasachi and others.

Let's talk about Yellow Bourbon. Coffee cherries generally turn red when ripe, but Yellow Bourbon turns yellow. Interesting, isn't it? It looks like a wampee fruit.

Here is a bit of unverifiable gossip: it is said that Bourbon is Typica's illegitimate child.

Ethiopian Landrace

Ethiopian native species have a rather complex system and are an ancient organization that is hard to separate. When you buy Ethiopian Yirgacheffe, for instance, the tree species is usually listed as "Heirloom."

The most outstanding descendant is undoubtedly Geisha, a wandering prince who, after years of travel through many places, finally made its name in Panama. Since then it has been unstoppable, looking down on all others with its elegant demeanor.

Native species also include Java, Kaffa and Gimma beans. Below are common varieties.

Typica x Bourbon x Robusta Beans All Came?

Next is the most scandalous gossip section of the coffee world.

First, the relatively pure ones.

Pacamara, for example, is a hybrid of Pacas and Maragogype, also known as Elephant Bean. If you do not follow, do not worry, we will use a diagram.

The Elephant Bean (Maragogype) from the Typica family and Caturra from the Bourbon family gave birth to Maracaturra.

The next family is more complicated.

Sumatran Typica from the Typica clan and a son of Bourbon gave birth to Mundo Novo.

Mundo Novo later hybridized with Caturra from the Bourbon family to create Catuai.

Catuai then had Maracatu with the Elephant Bean (Maragogype) from the Typica family.

Yes, it is just one letter different from that pure child above. So the question arises again: is Typica the grandfather of Maracatu, or the grandfather's grandfather?

All of the above are hybrid pairings within Arabica. What about Robusta crosses? There are examples of those too.

Caturra from the Bourbon family and Timor, the Cinderella of the poor Robusta family, gave birth to Catimor. Actually, Timor is itself a hybrid of some Arabica and some Robusta.

Disease resistance improved and yield increased, but Catimor failed to inherit its father's noble bloodline and fully learned its mother's shortcomings, lacking elegance. Later, people hoped to obtain offspring through self-pollination that combined the advantages of both parents, but this was not very successful. So we can see that Catimor has many descendant branches, including the famous Costa Rica 95, Catimor, Colombia, and Colombia's newer descendant Castillo.

Finally, there is Rume Sudan from the native species crossed with Timor from Robusta, whose descendant is called Ruiru 11, very common in Kenya.

Finally, a complete tree species relationship diagram for everyone.

Click on the larger image for more exciting, head-spinning content.

The editor is dizzy.

Written at the End

Actually, it is enough for everyone to be familiar with one or two parts of the above, because the major clans have begun breaking boundaries, hoping to obtain offspring with comprehensive advantages through intermarriage. Although the status of several currently outstanding princes seems unshakable, it is uncertain that hybrids comparable to them will not appear in the future. At that point, there will likely be a very long string.

Interestingly enough, let me talk about an old news story from the coffee world last year.

As a branch of Catimor, Castillo has three main characteristics: high yield, strong disease resistance and rich flavor. It has 7 forms and can adapt to complex soil and water environments.

Starting in 2014, the SCAA has been collaborating with the Colombian government to organize a cup quality competition between Castillo and Caturra, a direct Bourbon variant. The competition results were also published on the SCAA official website in April 2015.

Below are the three-round average scores of Castillo versus Caturra. Castillo won the first round of blind tasting, and although it lost the next two rounds, the scores were almost neck and neck. It is not difficult to see from the table that Castillo's average scores over three rounds were significantly better than Caturra's. Caturra's low scores in all three rounds were far below Castillo's, revealing the instability of pure varieties.

And most frightening of all, Castillo's yield is much higher than Caturra's.

Foreign websites even published headlines like:

Castillo vs. Caturra is not Quantity vs. Quality

This means Castillo does not just win on quantity. Its quality can also compete with Caturra.

Interested friends can check out the competition process and reports on the SCAA official website.

This year, the World Coffee Research organization, which focuses on origin and coffee breeding, made a bold statement: within 10 years, we will cultivate a new coffee tree variety, one that has the excellent flavor of Caturra, or even Geisha, while also having the high yield of Costa Rica 95.

Let's look forward to it.

To avoid redundancy in introducing tree species, this article has omitted specific flavor descriptions and regional distribution information.

FrontStreet Coffee Recommendation

The Ethiopian landrace clan is where the Arabica story begins, and it is still the best place to taste it. FrontStreet Washed Yirgacheffe Coffee is the classic gateway, with clear jasmine florals, bright citrus acidity and a light, elegant body that drinks like clean lemon tea.

For a clearer view of what a single cooperative can do, FrontStreet Gedingding Cooperative Coffee comes from a smallholder team at the southeastern edge of Yirgacheffe that became independent in 2012 with roughly 300 members. Removing the fruit before drying lets its own aromatics shine, showing citrus and lemon with elegant white florals and a bright, delicate finish.

And to trace the family tree back to its wild roots, FrontStreet Kafa Forest Coffee is grown at 1,400-2,100m in the Kafa Biosphere Reserve of southwestern Ethiopia, a UNESCO-recognized area and a globally acknowledged birthplace of Arabica. Roasted medium-light, it opens with pronounced white florals, then a bright lemon acidity with sweet orange and bergamot, a faint melon and nut sweetness in the aftertaste, and a green-tea-like body.