Typica vs Bourbon: Which Coffee Variety Reigns Supreme? What is Brazil's Best Coffee Known As?

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

FrontStreet Coffee - Introduction to the Bourbon and Typica Varieties

In Ethiopia, the recognized homeland of Arabica, there are as many as 2,000 known coffee varieties, with even more waiting to be discovered in the wild coffee forests. Most of these are collectively referred to as "heirloom varieties" — including, notably, the Geisha we all know and love, widely considered an heirloom from Ethiopia.

Today we will discuss Typica and Bourbon, the two most ancient families among these heirloom varieties. They ventured out of Ethiopia, spread across the world, and took on the great mission of carrying fine coffee to every corner of the globe.

Typica

Typica is the most ancient and distinguished of the heirloom varieties, and it has given rise to numerous excellent descendants: Mandheling, Blue Mountain, Maragogipe (the Elephant Bean), Kona, and more are all derived from Typica. Yet despite its superb flavor, Typica itself — delicate in constitution, poor in disease resistance (susceptible to leaf rust), and low-yielding — has gradually been replaced in Central and South America by Catuai and Catimor, both Bourbon variants, because it makes poor economic sense. It has become increasingly rare.

Bourbon

Alongside Typica as an ancient and excellent variety is Bourbon. (Some sources suggest Bourbon is actually a variant of Typica after it was transplanted to Yemen.) The varieties derived from Bourbon are also extraordinarily rich: Pacas, Red Bourbon, Yellow Bourbon, Kenya's "SL28" and "SL34," Caturra, and Villa Sarchi are all direct descendants. Bourbon itself is vigorous, resists leaf rust better than Typica, and loses nothing in flavor — it may even be superior, often winning cupping competitions — while yielding somewhat more than Typica.

Among Brazil's many coffee varieties, Yellow Bourbon is one of the most outstanding variants. Regular Bourbon cherries typically go from green to yellow to red, but Yellow Bourbon stops at yellow. Grown at high altitude and processed naturally, it delivers exceptional flavor. Brazil Chacal Yellow Bourbon comes from the Aguas Claras farm in the Llcinea region of Minas Gerais, where excellent water quality keeps every lot the farm produces at a superb standard.

Knowledge Point

For a long time, Bourbon has been considered one of the finest coffees thanks to its low yield and high quality.

In Brief

FrontStreet Coffee is a research-focused coffee specialty shop, delighted to share coffee knowledge with everyone. We share without reservation simply to help more friends fall in love with coffee. Every month we hold three significantly discounted coffee events, because FrontStreet Coffee wants more friends to enjoy the best coffee at the lowest possible price — this has been our mission for the past six years!

FrontStreet Coffee Recommendation: Taste the Typica Legacy in a Mandheling

Mandheling, as noted above, is one of Typica's famous descendants — and FrontStreet Coffee's Indonesian lots show it off beautifully. The FrontStreet PWN Golden Mandheling is the benchmark: beans screened above 18 mesh, fewer than 3 defects per 300g of green coffee, and three rounds of hand-sorting to the G1 grade. Roasted medium-dark to highlight black chocolate and caramel while preserving its wild herbal character, it brews best by hand with 15g of coffee, 87-88°C water, a 1:15 ratio, a coarse-sugar grind, and a three-stage pour (30g bloom, then 100g and 95g) for a thick, full-bodied cup with caramel sweetness, chocolate, nuts, and lingering spice. Prefer espresso? The FrontStreet Classic Blend adds medium-dark Mandheling to creamy Brazilian coffee — butter, roasted chestnut, caramel, with sandalwood and spice notes lifted further by a touch of Robusta.