The History of Typica Coffee Bean Variety Spread and Flavor Differences Between Blue Mountain Coffee Washed and Natural Processing Methods

The Global Journey and Cultivation of Typica Coffee

Currently, Arabica coffee beans account for 70% of global production. As one of the ancient varieties of Arabica coffee beans, Typica spread from its homeland Ethiopia to various parts of the world, creating the development of coffee-producing nations. How did it spread globally? And how is Typica cultivated? FrontStreet Coffee's article will discuss the spread history of Typica coffee and how it grows from a coffee bean to a coffee tree.

Typica Coffee Bean Variety

Typica is a sub-variety of Arabica coffee. The Typica variety initially grew in Martinique, and Central America, Jamaica, the Kona region of Hawaii, Papua New Guinea, and East Timor are currently the main coffee-growing areas for Typica. To obtain higher coffee yields from high-quality Typica, Typica coffee varieties are usually crossbred with other species.

Typica trees have distinct characteristics, making them one of the most easily recognizable varieties. These plants display a conical shape with a main vertical trunk that can reach up to 5 meters in height. This height means that compared to other varieties, the distance between branches and between nodes on the same branch is longer. Side branches form acute angles of 50 to 80 degrees with the vertical trunk. The trunk and branches are not very robust, and the leaves, fruits, and green beans are typically elongated. The tips of young leaf shoots are bronze-colored. Compared to other Arabica varieties, Typica leaves have a smoother surface with fewer wavy edges. Typical Typica fruits turn bright red when mature.

The bronze-colored top leaves of Typica are one of its characteristics. The beans are relatively large, appearing as pointed ovals or slender pointed shapes. Some people call it "red-topped coffee." However, the drawback is insufficient yield, requirements for altitude, susceptibility to leaf rust disease, and weak resistance to pests and diseases. FrontStreet Coffee, through cupping Typica coffee, finds it has a unique elegant and clean flavor profile with balanced characteristics and high flavor clarity.

Global Spread Path of Typica Coffee

Typica's Homeland - Ethiopia

Regarding the term "Arabica," its name can easily mislead people into thinking its origin is the Arabian Peninsula. In fact, it truly originated in Ethiopia. The reason it's called Arabica is entirely due to the key geographical location of the Arabian Peninsula, which connects three continents - Asia, Europe, and Africa. Before the Age of Discovery, this place was a hub for world cultural exchange. It wasn't until 1753 that botanist Linnaeus mistakenly thought the coffee originated from the Middle East and gave it the scientific name Coffea arabica L. In 2002, a coffee genetic research project funded by Europe discovered that the coffee gene diversity in Yemen and other places was far lower than in Ethiopia, which "helped" Arabica find its true homeland.

First Stop of Typica Spread - Yemen

When coffee first entered the Arabian Peninsula, it was used only for medicinal purposes. After several centuries of taking root, around 1500, the ports of Mocha and Aden in Yemen began using dried coffee fruit pulp crushed and brewed in water, called "qishwa." Later, it developed into coffee beans roasted with cinnamon fruit pulp, ground and boiled, called "qahwa."

Second Stop of Typica Spread - India

Around 1600, a devout Indian Muslim named Baba Budan went on a pilgrimage to Mecca and became fascinated with coffee. He attempted to illegally smuggle green coffee beans back to India, stealing seven Yemeni Typica coffee seeds. He returned to Karnataka province in southwestern India and planted them on the Chandragiri hills, where they successfully propagated. This was the first successful case in history of smuggling coffee green beans from Yemen for cultivation elsewhere.

Third Stop of Typica Spread - Europe

Around the 17th century, the port of Mocha in Yemen had already become a world-renowned coffee export port. At that time, to prevent coffee seeds from falling into other places for cultivation, exported coffee was all roasted beans, so coffee was also called "black gold." When coffee was introduced to Europe in the 17th century, the Netherlands, known as the "sea carriage drivers," sensed enormous business opportunities. It can be said that whoever owned coffee was equivalent to owning gold.

In the early 17th century, Europeans led by the Netherlands obtained Yemeni coffee seedlings through illegal theft or forceful seizure, but Europe's cold climate meant that even the stolen coffee seedlings could not survive and withered. It wasn't until 1616 that Captain De Boeck of the Dutch East India Company stole coffee trees from Mocha, Yemen, shipped them back to Amsterdam, and carefully cultivated them in large greenhouses, where they finally bloomed and bore fruit. This Typica coffee tree was also known as the "European mother plant." In 1699, the Netherlands transplanted Indian Typica to Java for successful trial cultivation, and in 1706 shipped Java's Typica back to the Netherlands for cultivation.

Fourth Stop of Typica Spread - Southeast Asia

As early as 1658, the Netherlands transplanted descendants of the "European mother plant" to Sri Lanka, but unfortunately, the cultivation failed. Later, in 1699, the Netherlands transplanted Malabar coffee trees from eastern India to Java. This trial cultivation was successful, and Typica grew steadily in Java. In 1718, the Netherlands transplanted the successfully trialed Typica from Java to Sumatra and Sulawesi islands. After more than a century of propagation, just as Indonesian Typica was at its peak, a leaf rust disease swept through most of Indonesia's Typica at the end of the 19th century. Later, they had to introduce the more disease-resistant variety Robusta.

Fifth Stop of Typica Spread - Central and South America

In 1708, France's attempt to cultivate coffee trees stolen from Mocha in Dijon failed. In 1714, the mayor of Amsterdam gave Java coffee seedlings to French King Louis XIV. France also built a greenhouse to carefully care for this unique seedling. Between 1715-1719, descendants of this mother plant were transplanted to French territories in Central and South America, but all were unsuccessful.

In 1720, a naval officer named Gabriel de Clieu stole a Typica seedling from the Paris Royal Botanical Garden and escorted it west across the Americas. In 1723, he finally reached the French Caribbean island of Martinique and carefully planted this single coffee seedling. Three years later, this "European mother plant" bore abundant fruit. By 1777, 19 million Typica trees were planted on Martinique Island. Meanwhile, countries in Central and South America such as Jamaica, Colombia, Guatemala, Costa Rica, and Venezuela successively introduced Typica coffee trees in the mid-to-late 18th century. Typica thus took firm root in Central and South America.

Sixth Stop of Typica - 19th Century Small Journeys

In 1825, Hawaii introduced improved Typica coffee from Guatemala and planted it in the Kona region, which became today's famous island coffee - Kona coffee. In 1904, French missionary Father Tertre traveled to Dali for missionary work and planted a Typica coffee tree in Zhugula Village. This coffee tree became the ancestor of Yunnan coffee.

Typica Coffee Growth Process

After understanding the spread history of Typica coffee, follow FrontStreet Coffee to learn about the growth process of Typica coffee.

FrontStreet Coffee has been planting Typica coffee beans in the border area between Yunnan and Myanmar for several years. The goal is to improve the quality of Yunnan coffee by changing existing cultivation varieties. Next, follow FrontStreet Coffee to understand the process from a coffee bean to a coffee tree.

Seed Selection

This starts with a single coffee seed. Coffee seeds are "coffee beans." The first step is seed selection - choosing high-quality varieties and high-quality beans. Varieties refer to Typica, Bourbon, etc. FrontStreet Coffee believes that only high-quality varieties can produce high-quality coffee. High-quality beans refer to quality. FrontStreet Coffee believes that selected breeding fruits must be fully mature, with normal shape, full and plump, and basically uniform in size. If short-term storage is needed, the seed moisture content should be reduced to 13%. The germination rate can reach 100% when sown within 1-3 months, while it's only 29% for 4-7 months.

Germination

First, prepare coffee seeds by soaking them in 45°C warm water for 24 hours. Then sow the seeds in medium-coarse sand particles (river sand), add another 1-2cm layer of coarse sand particles, then cover with a 3-5cm layer of straw to keep the sand layer moist. About 20 days after sowing, coffee seeds begin to germinate, and 40-60 days later they break through the soil. At this time, shade nets must be set up, requiring 80% shade coverage.

Seedling Cultivation

When the germination begins to grow the first pair of leaves, FrontStreet Coffee's coffee farmers will screen the coffee seedlings, selecting high-quality coffee seedlings to transplant into nutrition bags for cultivation.

Tree Growth

After seedling cultivation is complete, they need to be transplanted to fields for planting. Altitude has a great relationship with coffee quality. FrontStreet Coffee believes that Arabica coffee planted at altitudes above 1200 meters will have better quality. The first and second years after coffee tree planting are mainly for nutritional growth, and flowering and fruiting begin in the third year and thereafter.

Flowering

Coffee trees bloom during rainy days after the dry season. The first flowering period of coffee trees is around 3 years of age. The flowers are white, growing in clusters on the coffee tree's secondary branches, with 5-6 petals. At this time, you can smell the pure white flowers with strong jasmine fragrance.

Fruiting

Several months after the coffee flowers fade, the coffee tree begins to bear fruit. The newly formed coffee fruits are green. As they gradually mature, the color changes from green to yellow, and when fully mature, they turn red.

Harvesting

When coffee fruits mature, farmers must begin harvesting. The best harvesting method is manual selective picking, choosing only fully mature red fruits. Training a skilled coffee picker requires significant cost.

There's a saying: "Who knows that the food on the plate, every grain comes from hard work." Whether it's rice, coffee beans, or other crops, behind all cultivation are groups of farmers who carefully nurture them. Therefore, FrontStreet Coffee wants to remind everyone not to waste any hard-won food.

Jamaica Blue Mountain Typica Coffee

Now, returning to our topic, the most famous place for growing Typica globally is Jamaica's Frontsteet Blue Mountain Coffee. Next, FrontStreet Coffee will examine the flavor performance of Jamaica Blue Mountain's Typica coffee through roasting, cupping, and brewing.

The Blue Mountains are located in eastern Jamaica, at an altitude of 1000-1700m. The Blue Mountains are situated in the coffee cultivation belt, with fertile volcanic soil, fresh air, no pollution, humid climate, and year-round fog and rain (average precipitation of 1980mm, temperature around 27°C). Such climate has created the world-renowned Jamaica Frontsteet Blue Mountain Coffee. Only Blue Mountain coffee grown in this region is authentic Frontsteet Blue Mountain Coffee. Typica in the Blue Mountains was transplanted from Martinique Island to Jamaica's Blue Mountains in the 1720s. After more than 200 years, Blue Mountain Typica has evolved better disease resistance, especially resistance to fruit rot disease, which is superior to general Typica. However, Blue Mountain Typica cannot replicate its characteristic sweet and elegant fragrance when taken outside Jamaica.

FrontStreet Coffee currently offers two types of Frontsteet Blue Mountain Coffee from Clifton Farm. Clifton Estate is also the only Rainforest Alliance certified farm in the Blue Mountain growing region. Before 2019, Clifton Farm's Blue Mountain coffee was always processed using the washed method. During processing, the fruit skin and pulp are first removed, allowing fermentation for 12-18 hours. Then the completed fermented beans are placed in pools, moved back and forth, using the friction of the beans and the power of flowing water to wash the coffee beans until smooth and clean. After washing, the coffee beans are still encased in parchment, with a moisture content of 50%. They must be sun-dried to reduce moisture content to 12-14%, otherwise they will continue to ferment and become moldy and spoiled. Afterward, the coffee beans are sorted and then stored in specialized warehouses.

In the new harvest season of 2020, Clifton Farm launched natural processed Blue Mountain coffee beans for the first time, which was quite novel. Jamaica has a tropical rainforest climate, with rainy seasons from May to June and September to November each year, with the most showers in January and May. The harvest and processing season for Jamaica Blue Mountain coffee is from February to June each year, with half of this time overlapping with the rainy season, making natural processing clearly impractical. Additionally, traditional natural processing has unstable coffee quality - the coffee quality entirely depends on weather conditions. Moreover, to achieve better quality natural processing, the labor cost is higher than washed and other processing methods. When coffee fruits are naturally dried on drying beds, they need to be manually turned every few hours to maintain ventilation, reduce mold growth, and ensure even drying. Such a labor-intensive yet unrewarding processing method was even more difficult to implement in Jamaica at that time.

FrontStreet Coffee Blue Mountain Coffee Roasting Insights

Frontsteet Washed Blue Mountain

Heat the roaster to 170°C, start with the damper at 3. After 1 minute, adjust heat to 140°C, damper unchanged. Roast until 5'10'', temperature reaches 153°C, bean surface turns yellow, grassy smell completely disappears, dehydration complete. Adjust heat to 115°C, damper to 4. At 8'00", ugly wrinkles and black spots appear on the bean surface, toast smell clearly changes to coffee aroma, which can be defined as the prelude to first crack. At this time, listen carefully for the sound of first crack. At 8'12" first crack begins, adjust heat down to 90°C, damper fully open (adjust heat very carefully, not so low that cracking stops), discharge at 201.3°C.

Frontsteet Natural Blue Mountain

Heat the roaster to 165°C, heat at 130, damper at 3. Return to temperature point at 1'32", when roaster temperature is 95.8°C, heat unchanged. At 3 minutes, adjust damper to 4. At 4 minutes, increase heat to 140. At 6'30'', bean surface turns yellow, grassy smell completely disappears, entering dehydration stage. At 8'36", ugly wrinkles and black spots appear on bean surface, toast smell clearly changes to coffee aroma, which can be defined as the prelude to first crack. At this time, listen carefully for the sound of first crack. At 10'06" first crack begins, develop for 3 minutes after first crack, discharge at 198.5°C.

FrontStreet Coffee Blue Mountain Coffee Cupping Report

FrontStreet Coffee conducts cupping within 8-24 hours after roasting sample coffee beans. FrontStreet Coffee's baristas typically use 200ml ceramic cupping bowls marked with 150ml and 200ml measurement lines. Using SCAA standards, water TDS is around 150ppm. Too low TDS can easily cause over-extraction, while too high TDS affects flavor and can cause under-extraction. Cupping water temperature is 94°C. Cupping grind size follows SCAA cupping standards, controlled to pass through a No. 20 standard sieve (0.85mm) at 70%-75% rate. Ratio: 11 grams of coffee powder plus 200ml of hot water, i.e., 1:18.18, so the extracted concentration falls within the 1.15%-1.35% golden cup range. Steeping time: 4 minutes.

Frontsteet Washed Blue Mountain Coffee Cupping

Dry Aroma: Roasted peanuts, hazelnuts, cantaloupe, chocolate

Wet Aroma: Oolong tea, caramel, honey, chocolate, almonds

Flavor: Roasted nuts, chocolate, almonds, cantaloupe, honey, balanced sweet, sour, and bitter

Frontsteet Natural Blue Mountain Coffee Cupping

Dry Aroma: Nuts, woody

Wet Aroma: Caramel

Flavor: Berries, preserved plums, mulberries, dark cocoa, nuts, slight fermented sensation

FrontStreet Coffee Blue Mountain Coffee Brewing Recommendations

Filter: Kono dripper
Coffee amount: 15g
Coffee-to-water ratio: 1:15
Water temperature: 88-89°C
Grind size: Medium-coarse (75% pass-through rate for No. 20 standard sieve)

Frontsteet Brewing Method: First pour 30g of water for 30-second bloom, then pour 95g more (scale shows around 125g), completing the pour in about 1 minute. When the water level drops to 2/3 of the coffee bed, pour the remaining 100g (scale shows around 225g), completing the pour in about 1 minute 40-45 seconds. Complete drip extraction between 2 minutes 5 seconds - 2 minutes 10 seconds, remove the dripper, and complete extraction.

[Frontsteet Washed Blue Mountain]: Entry shows dark chocolate and nut flavors, high clarity, very bright, good body, balanced sweet, sour, and bitter.

[Frontsteet Natural Blue Mountain]: Entry shows brown sugar sweetness accompanied by berry acidity, with nut and cocoa flavors in the middle and back sections, creamy mouthfeel, rich and distinct layers, with walnut aroma in the aftertaste.

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