What Does Arabica Coffee Taste Like? Arabica vs. Mandheling: I Want Them All

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FrontStreet Coffee - Introduction to Arabica Coffee Bean Varieties

Arabica Coffee

Around the world, coffee belonging to the small-fruited Arabica species is not native - most are cultivated varieties. As for how Arabica coffee spread throughout the world, no complete records have been found. Some scattered documents are insufficient to construct a complete transmission map.

However, in the lands of Ethiopia and South Sudan, thousands of indigenous Arabica coffee tree species grow. Only a very small portion of these species has been brought outside Africa. Around the 16th-17th centuries AD, they were first introduced to Yemen, from where they then spread to other places.

Botanists refer to this coffee as the Typica coffee tree species. The coffee planted in Java may be the genetic ancestor of Arabica (or Typica) coffee trees that spread worldwide. Bourbon coffee is another earlier discovered Arabica variety, resulting from a natural mutation of Arabica coffee. The cultivation history of Bourbon coffee can be traced back to the Bourbon Islands from the mid-18th to late-19th century, today known as Réunion Islands.

Most Arabica coffee varieties consumed today belong to natural mutations and artificially cultivated varieties of the original Arabica and Bourbon coffees. Arabica beans have a mellow aroma, rich and delicate flavor - strong yet not bitter, fragrant yet not intense, with a slight fruity acidity. They are of high quality, considered superior among coffees, and have always been favored in the international market.

In the 17th century, the Dutch introduced Arabica seedlings to Indonesia. In 1877, a large-scale disaster struck the Indonesian islands. Coffee rust disease destroyed almost all coffee trees, forcing people to abandon the long-cultivated Arabica and import Robusta coffee trees from Africa, which have stronger disease resistance. Today, Indonesia is a major coffee-producing country. Coffee production is mainly concentrated in Java, Sumatra, and Sulawesi, with Robusta varieties accounting for 90% of total output. Sumatra Mandheling is a rare Arabica variety.

These trees are planted on mountain slopes between 750 and 1,500 meters above sea level. The mysterious and unique Sumatra has endowed Mandheling coffee with rich aroma, full-bodied texture, and intense flavor. Even more distinctive, it carries subtle notes of chocolate and syrup.

Knowledge Point:

High-altitude growing areas range from 4,000 to 6,000 feet. Growing temperatures need to be between 15-25 degrees Celsius, with annual rainfall reaching 1,500-2,000 millimeters. Additionally, rainfall timing must align with the flowering cycle of coffee trees.

In Brief:

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