Differences Between Arabica Coffee Bean Varieties: Typica vs Bourbon

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Have you ever noticed some coffee experts around you who can casually glance at coffee beans and immediately tell you their variety, origin, and other information, leaving you in awe? How do they do it?

Although the single-origin beans we encounter daily are all Arabica coffee beans, there are still many differences in appearance among the various varieties within Arabica. To be able to identify coffee bean varieties just by their appearance, you must carefully observe each type of coffee bean, identify their characteristics, and memorize them. That's right, isn't it just like learning coffee cupping?

Now, let's follow FrontStreet Coffee to get to know these coffee beans that all look quite similar! Since most people have limited access to green beans, FrontStreet Coffee will use roasted beans for our illustrations. If you happen to have a bag of coffee beans on hand, you can learn and apply immediately by grabbing a handful to observe and identify.

Typica

Let's start with the Arabica template - Typica. If you flip through any coffee book, whenever there are illustrations introducing Arabica coffee beans, the beans shown are most likely Typica. Typica beans generally have an oval shape - slender, long, flat, and full, appearing very standard.

Bourbon

Bourbon coffee is a natural variant of Typica coffee. Originally, Typica coffee trees planted in Yemen underwent mutation, producing round coffee beans, which came to be known as round-bodied coffee beans. Later, the French planted a batch of these round coffee seeds on Bourbon Island (now Réunion Island), and the name Bourbon coffee spread. Today, Brazil is the main country cultivating the Bourbon coffee variety. Bourbon coffee beans are characterized by short ends, stocky and round in shape, with particle size comparable to Typica.

These two coffee varieties, Typica and Bourbon, are known as the ancient superior varieties of Arabica. Many widely cultivated coffee varieties that followed are mostly variants of these two varieties.

SL28 & SL34

The most classic are the two varieties SL28 and SL34 widely cultivated in Kenya! Note that these are two different coffee varieties.

These two varieties are the result of classic artificial selection. SL actually stands for "Scott Laboratory." This laboratory was established to study coffee cultivation. They found 42 coffee varieties in the wild and cultivated them in experimental fields (note: this is artificial selection, not artificial hybridization). After more than 10 years of selection, they finally selected SL28 and SL34 as varieties suitable for cultivation in Kenya.

Later, through expert research, it was discovered that SL28 belongs to Bourbon or its variants, while SL34 belongs to Typica or its variants. Therefore, we can find coffee beans of different appearances mixed together in Kenyan coffee beans. By classifying them according to their appearance, we can obtain the rounder SL28 and the longer SL34.

Caturra

Caturra is a natural variant of the Bourbon variety. Caturra plants have very close branch spacing, and the fruit size is smaller than Bourbon, which allows for more fruit production in the same space, significantly increasing coffee fruit yield. Caturra beans are similar in shape to Bourbon, also tending toward roundness, but slightly longer than Bourbon, like small chubby ovals.

Catuai

Catuai is an artificially bred hybrid of Caturra and Mundo Novo. Mundo Novo resulted from natural hybridization between Bourbon and Sumatran Typica. Therefore, Catuai naturally expresses Typica genes in its physical characteristics.

Catuai coffee beans are oval and flat, with the tail end of the bean being relatively slender. In Central and South America, many growing regions plant Caturra and Catuai together, so we can find some smaller, rounder Caturra beans and larger, longer Catuai beans in Central and South American coffees.

Geisha

Geisha coffee is probably the variety everyone is most familiar with, but many friends have only heard its name without seeing its appearance. So FrontStreet Coffee will talk about its characteristics, starting with Panamanian Geisha as an example because its recognizability is highest. Panamanian Geisha coffee beans are slender with pointed ends and plump, full middles. The roasted beans somewhat resemble sausage buns.

For example, in "Mariposa" beans, which include Geisha, Caturra, and Catuai, we can first clearly separate out the large, elongated beans with pointed ends - these are the typical characteristics of Geisha coffee beans. Of course, smaller Geisha coffee beans have slightly lower recognizability, but with careful observation, they still meet the characteristics of pointed ends and a plump middle.

However, this characteristic doesn't apply to Ethiopian Geisha. Ethiopian Geisha coffee beans were identified after Panamanian Geisha became famous, when researchers traced back to the forest in Ethiopia where the original samples were taken, then searched the forest for varieties they believed had flavors similar to Panamanian Geisha.

For example, the Geisha coffee varieties at Gesha Village Estate are called Gori Gesha and Gesha 1931. The estate owner traced historical records to find a place called Gori Gesha Forest, believing that the British had taken Geisha samples from here. They also collected samples here and finally selected Gesha 1931. It was selected not through genetic identification, but based on plant morphology, bean shape, and cupping flavors. From the samples, they believed this coffee variety was similar to Panamanian Geisha.

As for Gori Gesha, it was recovered by the owner when they entered the Gori forest again in 2011. Even if they found the right place, with thousands of varieties in the Geisha forest, there's no guarantee that the varieties they found were exactly the original Geisha (T2722). So it's normal that the bean shape characteristics are different, after all, they're not the same variety.

Gesha Village's Geisha beans tend to be smaller in size. Gesha 1931 has slightly pointed ends and a plump middle. Gori Gesha appears oval-shaped and is relatively small.

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