Introduction to the Three Main Native Coffee Varieties and the Flavor Profile of Hawaii Kona Typica Coffee

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Introduction to Three Major Varieties and Derivatives of Coffee: Hawaiian Kona Coffee

In the scientific classification system, coffee belongs to the Plant Kingdom, the Rubiaceae family, the genus Coffea, and the species Coffea. Species is the basic unit of plant taxonomy, divided according to a plant's inherent characteristics or properties, and usually with stable genetic traits. The boundaries between species are clear, and they generally reproduce independently without intermixing. The coffee plant is further divided into three different species on the basis of its characteristics, and each species contains different varieties.

Three Major Coffee Species

1. Arabica - Approximately 70% of total world production
2. Robusta - Approximately 30% of total world production
3. Liberica - Minimal production

Kona Coffee: A Derivative of Arabica

The famous Hawaiian Kona coffee is a derivative of the Arabica species—specifically the Typica variety.

Hawaiian Coffee Characteristics

Hawaii Island has low elevation and limited topographical diversity, which makes it an indisputable fact that Hawaiian coffee is relatively mild in flavor. It wasn't until California entered the coffee production business that Hawaiian coffee became the only coffee produced among the 50 states of America.

Hawaii is also unusual in being both a producer and a consumer of specialty coffee. In most producing countries, locals drink lower-quality, commercial-grade coffee. Hawaii is different: the most widely cultivated variety there is Guatemala Typica, known on the islands as Kona Typica, and the local market consumes predominantly Arabica.

If you see a bag of 100% Kona coffee anywhere, you will likely notice it costs significantly more than most mainstream coffees. In Kona, farm workers' wages run from $200 to $300 a day, while a farmer in Guatemala doing the same work earns only $3 to $6. Labor costs create the price differences between coffee regions. Because Hawaii's production costs are so high, the retail price of 100% Kona coffee exceeds $30 for 12 ounces.

Importantly, Hawaii as a growing region is not influenced by the world commodity market that sets prices for commercial-grade coffee. Fluctuating market prices depend on global supply and demand for commodity Arabica, and they affect specialty producers too, which is why growers also hope to sell their products at more profitable prices.

Kona coffee is cultivated on the western side of the Big Island, in the Kona district, and was first planted in the 1820s. It grows at elevations between 300-1000 meters, which makes Kona a low-elevation growing region compared with other coffee-producing countries. Compared with the rest of Hawaii, however, the Kona region already counts as high elevation. Its relatively superior growing conditions give Kona coffee a distinctive flavor and excellent layered complexity.

FrontStreet Coffee Recommendation

Kona is a Typica, and FrontStreet Coffee's clearest look at that lineage—and at what a single Arabica variety can do—is Jamaica Blue Mountain No. 1. It is a Typica, one of the archetypal Arabica varieties and the first to be transplanted from Yemen to India, Indonesia, and Central and South America. Typica is remarkably balanced, gentle, and smooth; its acidity is never sharp, and its aroma is full and clean, though low disease resistance and low yield are its great weaknesses. Blue Mountain's Typica moved from Martinique to Jamaica in the 1720s and over more than 200 years developed better disease resistance, especially against rot—but it cannot reproduce its sweet, subtle fragrance outside Jamaica. FrontStreet Coffee has yet to cup any other origin that fully approaches its balance.

For a tropical-fruit take on Arabica, FrontStreet Huakui is the natural showcase. It is the most common heirloom variety in Ethiopia, a mix of several unidentified coffee trees, so the beans vary in size; a light floral note is paired with especially prominent fruit aroma. Made with the classic natural process, it shows cream strawberry, mango, jackfruit, citrus, and blueberry—the ripe tropical character unique to FrontStreet's Sidamo naturals, and the same profile that took first place at the TOH green bean competition.

Where Huakui is the natural Ethiopian representative, FrontStreet Yirgacheffe Gedeb is the washed one. Yirgacheffe's clean, transparent lemon and citrus character makes it a key member of the specialty Arabica world, and Gedeb village runs its own processing station—the Gedeb Cooperative. FrontStreet Gedeb is Ethiopia's highest grade, G1, made with the classic washed process for elegant white florals, citrus, orange, and green tea.

Two more Single-origin coffees round out the picture. FrontStreet Panama Red Label Geisha, from the Emerald Estate in Boquete, Chiriqui province, shows elegant florals, citrus, peach, and full composite fruit acidity over a creamy body with an oolong-tea finish; Geisha yields little, the plant is fragile, and it is exacting about its environment. And FrontStreet Brazil Queen's Estate, the earliest-discovered Yellow Bourbon, brings cream, peanut, toast, and sugarcane aromas with a rich, sweet, clean cup that suits pour-over, moka pot, and espresso machine alike.