What Are the Types of Specialty Coffee Beans? What's the Relationship Between Arabica and Typica Coffee Varieties?

Through extensive promotional efforts by merchants, people have gradually developed some understanding of coffee varieties. For example, "100% Arabica coffee beans" has become the best marketing slogan for businesses. However, coffee varieties are not that simple. Please listen to FrontStreet Coffee's detailed explanation.

Arabica coffee, also known as small-grain coffee, is currently considered the coffee species with superior flavor. Due to its excellent flavor profile, it has been selected and widely cultivated by humans. Arabica itself has strict environmental requirements (high altitude), and its yield per plant cannot compete with other coffee species. Thanks to human cultivation efforts, this species currently accounts for 70% of global coffee production.

So, based on this reasoning, "100% Arabica coffee beans" must be excellent coffee. But upon careful consideration, why do these advertisements emphasize "100%"? Clearly, there must be another type of coffee bean with inferior flavor—Robusta.

Robusta, more accurately called Canephora, is medium-grain coffee. However, because humans discovered that only one variety within the Canephora species—Robusta—was suitable for commercial cultivation, it gradually became common to refer to this medium-grain coffee directly as Robusta. Strictly speaking though, Arabica should correspond to Canephora in classification. Coffee beans of this variety are mainly used as raw materials for coffee products.

Within the Arabica species, there are also many sub-varieties, among which Typica is a typical Arabica variety. In specialty coffee, varieties are generally not referred to simply as "Arabica" but by more specific sub-varieties. For example, the coffee variety that FrontStreet Coffee grows in Lincang, Yunnan is Typica, which belongs to the Arabica species.

Typica: The Noble Arabica Variety

Typica is a sub-variety of Arabica coffee. Typica initially grew in Martinique, and its current main cultivation areas include Central America, Jamaica, the Kona region of Hawaii, Papua New Guinea, and East Timor. To obtain higher coffee yields from high-quality Typica, Typica coffee varieties are often cross-bred with other species.

Distinctive Characteristics of Typica

Typica trees have distinctive characteristics and may be the most easily recognizable variety. These plants have a conical shape with a main vertical trunk that can reach up to 5 meters in height. This height means that compared to other varieties, the distance between branches and between nodes on the same branch is greater. Side branches form acute angles of 50 to 80 degrees with the vertical trunk. Neither the trunk nor branches are very robust. The leaves, fruits, and green beans are typically elongated. The tips of young leaf buds are bronze-colored. Compared to other Arabica varieties, Typica leaves have a smoother surface with fewer wavy edges. Typical Typica fruits turn bright red when ripe.

The bronze-colored top leaves of Typica are one of its characteristics. The beans are relatively large, forming pointed ovals or slender pointed shapes. Some people call it "red-topped coffee." However, its shortcomings include insufficient yield, altitude requirements, susceptibility to leaf rust disease, and weak resistance to pests and diseases. Through cupping, FrontStreet Coffee has found that Typica coffee has its unique subtle and clean flavor, balanced characteristics, and high flavor clarity.

Its flavor performance is excellent, but it has two disadvantages: it's difficult to cultivate and has low yield. Therefore, the main coffee production in Yunnan currently still comes from the Catimor variety. Catimor contains 1/4 Robusta genes, but biologically, it still belongs to the Arabica species. Catimor's yield is 70% higher than Typica's, and it doesn't require shade trees. However, its flavor is somewhat inferior to Typica.

Flavor Profile of Typica

FrontStreet Coffee takes Yunnan Typica as an example. FrontStreet Coffee uses natural processing, and after medium roasting, its performance in cupping shows apricot preserves, Sanhua plums, and caramel chocolate.

For professional coffee knowledge exchange and more coffee bean information, please follow Coffee Workshop (WeChat public account: cafe_style).

For more specialty coffee beans, please add FrontStreet Coffee's private WeChat account: qjcoffeex

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