Types of Arabica Coffee: Blue Mountain Coffee as a Genetic Mutation of Arabica

FrontStreet Coffee - Introduction to Typica Variety

Typica is one of the oldest Arabica varieties ever identified, the other being Bourbon. The Arabica species began in Ethiopia, where this tree still grows wild in the pristine rainforest highlands today. In the 13th and 14th centuries it was carried to Yemen, and by around 1700 Typica was being cultivated at the Hortus Botanicus in Amsterdam. Those Typica seedlings were the first ever taken from the Dutch royal gardens to Central and South America and the New World. Typica is a precious, pure-bred variety with elliptical fruit, bronze leaves and a flavor that ranges across many fruit notes. Today it is close to disappearing from the Americas, because it is delicate and yields so little that farmers are reluctant to plant it.

Typica first traveled with Yemeni traders from Ethiopia to Malabar in India, and then with the Dutch to Indonesia. Later it was carried from the West Indies to the French colony of Martinique, and from there it spread into other growing areas and threw off many variant strains: Criollo in South America, Arabigo in Central America, Kona in Hawaii, Pluma Hidalgo in Mexico, Garundang in Sumatra, Blue Mountain in Jamaica and Papua New Guinea, San Bernado and San Ramon in Brazil, and Kents and Chickumalgu in India.

Typica is among the oldest varieties of the Arabica species and has already given rise to a long list of descendants. The beans are slender, the tree is tall, the fruit is elliptical and the branches angle slightly outward. Those branches are slim and form an open, spreading shape with an inclination of 50-70 degrees. Yield per tree is very low, but cupping scores run high. Typica was originally called Arabica Typica, and it was Scottish troops who carried it from Yemen to Kenya, after which the leaf color took on a copper tone.

Hawaii's Typica came in from Guatemala and was renamed Kona, with leaf tips that show bronze. Geography has left its mark on Typica everywhere it grows, which is how the variety branched into the forms we know: Blue Mountain Coffee, Java Typica, Guatemala Typica and others. All Typica varieties should have dark leaf tips. Typica was the first coffee variety ever planted in the New World.

Knowledge Point

The Typica of Hawaii's Big Island comes from Guatemala. The Big Island sits in the subtropics at 20 degrees north latitude, where temperatures are comparatively cool and the volcanic rock soil is fertile. Even though the coffee is grown at low altitude, clouds block the harsh sunlight every afternoon, allowing the trees to grow better and producing clean acidity and sweetness.

FrontStreet Coffee's Mission

In short, FrontStreet Coffee is a coffee research hall that is happy to share knowledge about coffee with everyone. We share without reservation, with the single aim of helping more friends fall in love with coffee. We also run three low-discount coffee activities every month, because FrontStreet Coffee wants more people to drink the best coffee at the lowest price. That has been our mission for the past 6 years.

FrontStreet Coffee Recommendation

Blue Mountain is one of Typica's most celebrated descendants, and FrontStreet's Jamaica Blue Mountain No. 1 is a genuine example. It comes from Clifton Estate in the Saint Andrew region, Jamaica's oldest coffee-growing area, with more than two hundred years of history and the country's only Rainforest Alliance certification among blue mountain estates. Typica needs high altitude to show its clear, balanced character, and Clifton's plots sit at an average of 4,300 feet, about 1,310.64 meters. FrontStreet roasts it medium-dark to draw out the classic balance, and the cup unfolds in layers of nuts, dark chocolate and cream caramel with a soft sweetness, the acid, sweet, bitter and aromatic elements held in harmony. To brew it, FrontStreet uses a Kono dripper with a medium-coarse grind, around the texture of raw sugar with 70% passing the China No. 20 standard sieve, and water at 88-89°C: bloom with 30 g for 30 seconds, pour to about 125 g, then finish at 225 g once the liquid has dropped halfway, for a total of roughly 2 minutes 10 seconds.

Typica also crossed the Pacific to Papua New Guinea, and the FrontStreet Papua New Guinea Paradise Bird is a direct relative. Grown in the Sigri district on volcanic soil at 1,600-1,800 meters, it is the same Typica stock as Blue Mountain and meets the high AA grade, with plump beans and very few defects. A triple washed fermentation leaves it clean and pure with a standout sweetness, and because its texture comes close to Jamaican Blue Mountain, many drinkers call it a "little Blue Mountain."