Detailed Guide to Common Coffee Varieties from Global Growing Regions (Part 1)

Coffee beans come in a staggering number of varieties, though the best known by far is Arabica. Strictly speaking, coffee beans are the seeds of the coffee tree's fruit, and the species fall into three broad categories: Arabica, Robusta, and Liberica.

Nearly all specialty coffee today comes from Arabica. And as the industry has developed, transplantation, mutation, and hybridization have produced a huge family of varieties. Today, Typica and Bourbon are the two most genetically important Arabica varieties in the world -- the ancestors from which so many others descend.

Typica

The name Typica comes from the Latin word meaning "typical." The tree is distinctive: a tall plant that can reach 5 meters, with long internodal spacing, bronze-colored terminal leaves, a relatively smooth leaf surface with subtly wavy edges, mostly red cherries, and large beans shaped like pointed ovals or slender teardrops. On the farm, however, Typica is demanding: it has modest altitude requirements, is relatively fragile, and is susceptible to coffee leaf rust, with generally weak pest and disease resistance.

By the 1940s, most producing countries in South and Central America grew Typica, but its low yield and disease susceptibility led to gradual replacement by newer varieties. Today it survives mainly in Peru, Jamaica, Papua New Guinea, China's Yunnan province, and the Kona region of Hawaii.

FrontStreet Coffee carries several Typica beans, chief among them Jamaican Blue Mountain, washed processed. Brewed, it shows a balanced, rich mouthfeel with a pleasant aroma, persistent sweetness, and a long aftertaste.

Bourbon

In the early 17th century, French missionaries brought Bourbon to Reunion Island from Yemen. The island was known as "Reunion" only after 1789 -- before that it was called "Ile Bourbon," hence the variety's name. Like Typica, Bourbon is a tall variety, but it grows more branches with thicker trunks and limbs and more closely spaced fruit nodes, so it out-yields Typica.

Bourbon leaves are wider with wavy edges and green terminal leaves. The cherries are rounder, ripening into red, orange, and yellow; the beans are smaller and rounder overall. Like Typica it suits high-altitude cultivation and is vulnerable to leaf rust and pests, but it produces more.

From the mid-19th century, Bourbon traveled to the Americas with missionaries, arriving in Brazil and spreading across South and Central America. It is still grown today in El Salvador, Honduras, Brazil, and elsewhere. FrontStreet Coffee offers a pulped natural Cerrado coffee in its entry-level selection, with chocolate flavors, nutty aromas, and a balanced mouthfeel.

Geisha

Geisha was first collected in 1931 in the Kaffa forest of southern Ethiopia, taking its name from a nearby mountain called Gesha. With no fixed way to transliterate the local language into English at the time, the variety was recorded as "Geisha," and most people have used that spelling ever since.

The Geisha plant is tall with long branch spacing, its trunk and branches relatively slender, its leaves smooth and elongated, and its cherries and seeds similarly slender.

The Geisha collected in Ethiopia was sent to the Lyamungu research station in Tanzania and to the Tropical Agriculture Research and Higher Education Center (CATIE) in Costa Rica, where it received the code "T2722." T2722 spread across Panama thanks to its resistance to coffee leaf rust, until the owner of Panama's Hacienda La Esmeralda found it, entered it in the Best of Panama (BOP) competition and auction -- where it took the highest score and the highest price ever paid at the time -- and triggered a worldwide sensation. Countries everywhere began planting Geisha, which is why it now grows in Colombia, Costa Rica, Guatemala, and beyond.

But "Geisha" today covers many types, such as Gori Gesha and Gesha 1931. Geisha's fame inspired Adam Overton and his wife to found their own estate, so they returned to Ethiopia to find Geisha's birthplace. In the Bench Maji region they located what they believed to be the original Geisha forest and established Gesha Village.

Gesha 1931 is the original Geisha variety Overton found in the Gesha forest; genetic comparison showed it to be nearly identical to Panamanian Geisha, hence the name. Later, in 2011, the owner found a Geisha-like variety in the Gori forest, 12 kilometers from the estate, brought it back to cultivate, and named it Gori Gesha.

FrontStreet Coffee Recommendation

Of the three founding varieties above, Typica survives most famously in Jamaica, and the FrontStreet Jamaica Blue Mountain No.1 is its greatest ambassador. Grown on the historic Clifton Mount estate -- farming coffee since around 1750 at about 4,300 feet (1,310.64 meters) -- and shipped in the traditional 15, 45, and 70 kg wooden barrels reserved for genuine Blue Mountain, it is roasted medium-dark and delivers hazelnut, cream, chocolate, and caramel in a cup of near-perfect balance: no harsh acidity, no heavy bitterness, just a soft, rounded body and a long, clean finish.

For a taste of Geisha at its best value, the FrontStreet Panama Boquete Geisha offers the classic orange-blossom honey, oolong tea texture, and fine fruit acidity at an entry-level price, while the FrontStreet Brazil Fazenda Rainha Yellow Bourbon shows Bourbon's sweeter, nuttier side from Brazil's Alta Mogiana highlands -- a lovely way to hear the difference these founding genetics make.