Three Major Coffee Types: Arabica Bean Varieties, Physical Characteristics, and Features of Typica, Bourbon, and Geisha

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Global Coffee Production and Main Varieties

Many countries now grow and export coffee, with the most famous coffee-producing nations including Brazil, Colombia, and Indonesia. Coffee beans from these countries all enjoy certain recognition. When classified by coffee variety, these producing countries are mainly divided into Arabica coffee, Robusta coffee, and Liberica coffee.

Most of the coffee beans in specialty coffee shops today are Arabica coffee beans, and the Ethiopia region in Africa is the birthplace of coffee. Arabica coffee has very elegant flavors and high sweetness. Common Arabica varieties on the market today include Typica, Bourbon coffee, and Catimor coffee.

Typica: The Ancient Coffee Variety

As one of the oldest coffee tree species in the world, nearly all current Arabica coffee bean varieties are derived from Typica coffee. For example, the famous Jamaican Blue Mountain variety is Typica, and Papua New Guinea's coffee beans, known as "Little Blue Mountain," are also Typica. They were introduced from the Blue Mountain Typica variety, and since their growing environment is very similar to the Blue Mountain coffee mountains, Papua New Guinea's Little Blue Mountain coffee gets its name from this.

As one of the best-flavored Arabica coffee varieties, Typica is grown in many places. For example, Indonesia in Asia initially also grew Typica coffee, and China's Yunnan coffee region was also primarily focused on growing Typica coffee. However, due to the global outbreak of leaf rust disease and Typica's extremely poor disease resistance, almost all plants were infected with leaf rust, so Indonesia had to introduce the Catimor variety, which has strong disease resistance and high yield.

The reason why Yunnan coffee region grows less Typica coffee is mainly because Typica has low yield, is difficult to manage, and the economic benefits from cultivation are not high, so local Yunnan coffee farmers are unwilling to grow it. They prefer Catimor coffee, which has high yield and strong disease resistance.

FrontStreet Coffee's Catimor Selection

FrontStreet Coffee has sourced Catimor coffee from both of these regions. For example, FrontStreet Coffee's Golden Mandheling coffee from Indonesia is from the Catimor variety. This Mandheling coffee has a very clean taste, high sweetness, and balanced fruit acidity. As for Catimor coffee from Yunnan region, FrontStreet Coffee has sourced two varieties: one is Yunnan Xiaoli coffee, and the other is natural processed Catimor coffee. Yunnan Xiaoli uses locally common washed processing, so the taste is cleaner, while the natural processed Catimor coffee has a richer, mellow taste.

Elephant Beans: The Giant Coffee Variety

Generally, Arabica coffee beans are smaller compared to Robusta, but people cannot judge based on the appearance of coffee beans alone—large coffee beans are not necessarily not Arabica coffee, such as Elephant beans.

Elephant beans were created because the Typica variety mutated to produce a larger-sized bean. Compared to other coffee beans, Elephant beans are an anomaly—their volume is 3 times or even more larger than other coffee beans. Elephant beans are mainly distributed in Central American countries, with current major production areas in Guatemala, Mexico, Nicaragua, Honduras, El Salvador, Brazil, and Zaire. The best Elephant beans grow in Mexico and Guatemala. Overall, Elephant beans have a relatively balanced flavor, with a round and smooth texture, moderate aroma, and lighter body, making them highly regarded in the industry.

According to FrontStreet Coffee's understanding, Elephant beans grown at 700-800 meters altitude have ordinary taste without special characteristics, but giant Elephant beans grown above 1,500 meters altitude have charming sweet aroma and strong fragrance. Besides their eye-catching large appearance, giant Elephant beans (Maragogype) are a variety of Typica (original Arabica bean species); their trees, leaves, and fruits are much larger than ordinary Arabica, with full fruits and hard beans. They are the only coffee in Central America without sharp acidity, thus enjoying the reputation of "Central America's Blue Mountain," very close to elegant Blue Mountain coffee beans, with sweet acidity and full body, becoming very charming.

FrontStreet Coffee has also sourced many coffee beans, but still feels that the Elephant beans from Nicaragua's coffee region have the best flavor. Among them, the Elephant beans grown at the Mama Mina estate in Nicaragua have the best flavor. FrontStreet Coffee has also cupped other coffee beans from the Mama Mina estate, and the coffee beans produced by this estate are of very good quality. FrontStreet Coffee believes their flavor is rich and layered, with the aroma of black berries noticeable upon entry, with blackberry and dark plum accompanied by citrus peel aroma, overall solid flavor, and silky, sweet taste.

Robusta and Hybrid Varieties

Among the three major coffee varieties, Robusta coffee also has a very wide cultivation range. Robusta coffee varieties are very heat-tolerant but not drought-tolerant. Compared to Arabica coffee, they have lower soil requirements and high yield, generally grown in low-altitude areas. Arabica varieties, however, are sensitive to both cold and heat and susceptible to diseases, so they have very high requirements for soil drainage and fertility.

Arabica varieties are generally grown in countries such as Indonesia, Vietnam, and Brazil. Most of the coffee grown on Sulawesi Island in Indonesia is Robusta coffee, because Robusta coffee has a strong but relatively bitter taste, with very obvious sourness不明显. Arabica coffee beans, on the other hand, have pleasant acidity, better taste, and are not too stimulating, very mild. Therefore, Robusta coffee is generally used for instant coffee, while Arabica coffee is mostly used for specialty coffee.

Hybrid Varieties: Castillo

Since Arabica coffee has good flavor and Robusta coffee has strong adaptability, can we combine the genes of both to cultivate a coffee variety with both good flavor and strong adaptability? Of course, the problems FrontStreet Coffee can think of, scientists may have already thought of, so many hybrid varieties of Arabica and Robusta coffee have appeared on the market, the most famous of which is the coffee variety developed and researched by Colombia's Coffee Research Institution—Castillo.

According to FrontStreet Coffee's understanding, Castillo is the result of five generations of hybrid selection between Timor and Caturra varieties. Because the Timor variety is a hybrid of Arabica and Robusta coffee, with tall plants and strong disease resistance, while Caturra, as a variety of Bourbon coffee, has small plants, high yield, and good flavor. Therefore, as a hybrid of these two varieties, Castillo inherits the excellent genes of both varieties and has become Colombia's current main cultivation variety.

FrontStreet Coffee's Colombian Selection

FrontStreet Coffee (FrontStreet Coffee) store has several coffee beans from Colombia's Castillo variety, namely Colombian San Jose coffee beans and Sakura coffee beans. Both of these coffee beans use special processing methods. For example, the processing method for Colombian San Jose coffee beans is refined washing followed by fermentation in rum barrels.

According to FrontStreet Coffee's understanding, the complete processing of these San Jose coffee beans from Colombia is: first, fully ripe coffee fruits are hand-picked, then after a simple washing process, they are fermented in water tanks for more than twenty hours, then placed in rum barrels aged over 8 years to rest for three months. Daily even rolling allows the coffee beans to absorb the wine aroma. After fermentation is complete, they are taken to room temperature for drying. After FrontStreet Coffee cupped these coffee beans, they found that besides the wine aroma, these San Jose coffee beans also have rich tropical fruit flavors upon entry, very distinctive, which is why FrontStreet Coffee stocks this coffee bean.

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