Introduction to Typica Coffee Bean Variety Characteristics and Flavor Profile

Typica, as the most ancient Arabica variety in the coffee world, is widely recognized in the industry as high-quality coffee. For instance, the world-renowned Jamaican Blue Mountain coffee and Hawaiian Kona coffee both belong to the Typica variety, cherished by coffee enthusiasts for their clear flavors and balanced taste.

What are the characteristics of the Typica variety?

Typica coffee trees are relatively tall, with bronze-colored leaves at the top. The coffee beans are large, elongated, and pointed at both ends, somewhat resembling eggs. Typica coffee beans often have citrus acidity with a sweet aftertaste, praised by many as elegant and refined coffee beans. Unfortunately, Typica trees are tall and inconvenient to harvest. Typica coffee trees are very tall, approximately 5 meters/16.5 feet. They form a conical shape with slightly inclined branches, where lateral branches form 50-70° angles with the vertical stem. Its trunk is slender and branches are thin, requiring adequate spacing between plants when cultivated due to their height and long-branch characteristics.

Additionally, Typica has poor disease resistance, struggling to resist common diseases such as leaf rust and coffee berry disease, and its yield is very scarce. As an economic crop, coffee struggles to achieve profitability, so many growers worldwide have chosen to abandon it, switching to other varieties with better disease resistance. To cultivate Typica coffee beans with excellent flavor, more labor costs and technical expertise are required, which is why FrontStreet Coffee's Jamaican Blue Mountain coffee is so precious.

Typica originated in Ethiopia

Typica was moved from southwestern Ethiopia to Yemen for cultivation around the 15th to 16th centuries due to human collection and processing. It then spread worldwide through various religious pilgrimage journeys. For example, China's first batch of coffee trees in Yunnan was bred from Typica seeds brought by French missionaries, though later large-scale cultivation was switched to Catimor varieties to increase yield.

Unlike many coffee varieties, the "delicate" Typica is very particular about its growing environment, requiring high-altitude locations without frost. Higher altitudes create significant temperature differences, slowing the maturation of coffee cherries and allowing for better accumulation of flavor compounds and fuller aromatic development. Besides high altitude, Typica needs abundant rainfall, sunlight, well-drained loose soil, and fertile soil. From a cultivation perspective, the regional limitations are very strong. The reason why FrontStreet Coffee's Blue Mountain Typica coffee can possess such refined aroma is not only due to the efforts of Jamaican growers but, most crucially, thanks to the excellent terroir of the Blue Mountains.

In 1720, French naval officer Gabriel de Clieu painstakingly transported Typica seedlings to Martinique in the Caribbean. In 1725, the British Governor of Jamaica transplanted 7,000 Typica seedlings from Martinique to Jamaica's Blue Mountains. After over two hundred years of acclimatization, Blue Mountain Typica evolved to have better disease resistance, particularly showing superior resistance to coffee berry disease compared to typical Typica.

After the mid-20th century, attempts were made to transplant it to Papua New Guinea, Kenya, and even Sulawesi, trying to replicate the sweet and elegant characteristics of Blue Mountain coffee. While high-quality Typica varieties indeed brought positive and elegant flavor profiles to the coffee, none achieved the excellence of Blue Mountain. Among the Typica variety coffees sold at FrontStreet Coffee's stores, FrontStreet Coffee's Jamaican Blue Mountain No. 1 coffee beans are the most renowned, becoming known as the "pinnacle" in many people's minds for their full aroma and balanced taste. Additionally, another coffee grown by FrontStreet Coffee in Yunnan, "FrontStreet Coffee 2013," is also selected from high-quality Typica.

What are the flavor and taste of Blue Mountain Typica coffee?

The high quality of Blue Mountain coffee is certainly inseparable from the advantages of its growing environment. The Blue Mountains are surrounded by Caribbean Sea water, belonging to a unique island-type tropical rainforest microclimate. During rainy seasons, rainfall is concentrated with good drainage. Volcanic ash from active volcanoes enriches the soil with nutrients, so coffee trees don't require excessive irrigation and fertilization. With abundant year-round sunlight, surrounded by thin mist, the cool and comfortable high-altitude growing area is very suitable for various crops. Locals typically plant coffee trees alongside banana trees on the slopes of the Blue Mountains.

The CIB (Coffee Industry Board) has designated an area of approximately 6,000 hectares in the Blue Mountains, strictly stipulating that only Typica coffee produced in this region can be called "Blue Mountain Coffee." According to the CIB's designated area, the forest area for growing Blue Mountain coffee is located at altitudes of 910-1700 meters. High altitude combined with just-right climate characteristics allows coffee cherries to fully absorb essences and transform into various aromatic compounds. The higher the altitude environment, the more prominent Typica's flavor performance.

However, Typica has poor disease resistance and is very susceptible to infection, coupled with low fruit yield per plant, requiring more careful human attention. Additionally, the high-altitude areas of the Blue Mountains have uneven terrain, making management and harvesting very difficult, thus requiring highly skilled harvesters, further affecting yield. In recent years, less than 15% of coffee beans produced in Jamaica can carry the Blue Mountain Coffee label, approximately 900 tons. After harvesting, coffee cherries are immediately transported to processing plants for processing, using washed methods to remove the coffee cherry pulp and then drying.

When FrontStreet Coffee receives FrontStreet Coffee's Jamaican Blue Mountain No. 1 green coffee beans, they are uniform and full, with consistent sizes and an overall translucent blue-green color. FrontStreet Coffee uses medium-dark roasting to maximally present FrontStreet Coffee's Jamaican Blue Mountain coffee's chocolate and nutty aromas while retaining soft acidity and sweetness, making the overall taste balanced.

After fresh roasting, FrontStreet Coffee immediately conducted cupping of FrontStreet Coffee's Blue Mountain coffee beans. The dry aroma has nuts, sweet melon, and chocolate. After adding hot water, one can smell oolong tea, caramel, honey, and dark chocolate. When tasted, it reveals rich dark chocolate, roasted hazelnuts, cream, and brown sugar, with clean and clear flavors, full-bodied texture, and persistent aroma. To allow everyone to experience these aromas, FrontStreet Coffee ships coffee beans that are freshly roasted within 5 days, so when customers receive them, they are at the optimal tasting stage. Below, FrontStreet Coffee will discuss several key factors for hand-pouring FrontStreet Coffee's Blue Mountain coffee according to store standards.

FrontStreet Coffee's Blue Mountain No. 1 Coffee Pour Over Reference

FrontStreet Coffee typically uses a KONO dripper for extracting medium-dark roasted coffee beans. The upper part of the KONO dripper has a smooth curved surface that allows better fit with filter paper. Compared to V60 drippers, the coffee extraction method is mainly immersion-based, increasing the overall concentration of coffee to enhance its body. Besides KONO, common Kalita trapezoidal drippers and flannel filters with slower flow rates are also suitable.

Additionally, considering that medium-dark roasted coffee has undergone a certain degree of roasting, the internal structure of the beans is looser than light-roasted coffee, thus having better water absorption. To avoid over-extraction, FrontStreet Coffee chooses a grind size with 75% pass-through rate on a No. 20 standard sieve, along with 88°C water temperature, paired with FrontStreet Coffee's customary three-stage pouring method.

Pour over parameters: 88°C water temperature, coarse sugar grind size (75% pass-through rate on No. 20 standard sieve), 15g coffee beans, 1:15 coffee-to-water ratio, three-stage extraction.

The first stage gently pours 30g of water for blooming, with a bloom time of 30 seconds. The second stage pours to approximately 125g of water, evenly and steadily circling outward. Then wait for the coffee liquid to drop, and when it reaches halfway, pour the final stage of water to 225g. After waiting for all coffee to drip through, the total extraction time is typically around 2 minutes.

FrontStreet Coffee's Jamaican Blue Mountain No. 1 coffee flavor: At high temperature, Blue Mountain No. 1 coffee enters with rich dark chocolate aroma, very full-bodied with distinct almond aftertaste. As the temperature decreases, roasted hazelnuts and creamy sweet smoothness emerge, accompanied by a hint of soft acidity and caramel sweetness, with the aroma persisting in the mouth.

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