Imagine yourself purchasing a bag of fresh specialty coffee beans. What do you look for? You would notice each bag is probably stamped with roast dates, roast profile, tasting notes, coffee origin, variety, etc. What would determine your decision for coffee purchase? Taste notes? Dates? Profile? Country? You fret your choices over and finally bought a bag of Ethiopian Yirgacheffe. The taste notes are usually floral aroma and fruity bursty flavours. You also know the beans are harvested in Ethiopia. But variety? What does it mean? What does variety have to do with coffee and your decision for coffee purchase?
To start with, what is variety? Pick an apple. Is the apple red or green? Is the apple big or small in size? Is it Granny Smith or Washington or Fuji apple? These "categorization" is what we call as variety. We give names to different apples. So does coffee. Each apple has their own unique characteristics - taste, tree, leaves, growth. So does coffee. If an apple has only one difference with its other similar companions, they deserve a different name. So does coffee.Knowing the variety is similar to knowing what kind of potatoes you had for lunch. (Sweet potato? Russet potato?) Understanding variety gives you an in-depth information of coffee that spans from plantation to business. It may not be a tie breaker for coffee decisions but it is certainly good to know about the coffee tree that bore fruits for your daily cup. Stories behind variety is educational as it involves historical origins (how a certain variety was spread), geographical characteristics, farm management and research etc.
Typically, classification for any living things is arranged accordingly. Biologists classify a plant by categorizing their family, genus, species and finally, variety - all in this order. The genus of coffee is called Coffea, from the family Rubiaceae. Two species that are commonly known in coffee are Coffea Arabica and Coffea Canephora (in other words, Robusta). There are other species, like Liberica and Excelsa, but it is not as significant as Arabica and Robusta. These two species are widely grown for our daily cup of coffee. Let us focus on Arabica as it has most promising flavors in a cup.
Arabica has many known species - it all starts with Typica. Coffee was generally first found in Ethiopia. Then, someone took out a coffee sample to plant it somewhere else than Ethiopia. That coffee variety is known as Typica, which is a latin word meaning "ordinary". Thanks to history, Typica was spread around the world. Somehow, a coffee plant in Bourbon (previously known as island of Reunion) changed dramatically. It was different from Typica. It does not have curly or darker colored leaves. It does not have green coffee fruits that turns red when mature. Instead, it was a bushier plant with bright lime colored leaves. It bears red, yellow or orange colored coffee fruits. This is what we called as natural mutation; the new variety possess a different physical characteristic from existing varieties. That mutated Typica is named after the place where it was found - "Bourbon". Bourbon variety has higher yield (higher produce) of coffee than Typica. Yield and disease susceptibility characteristics are two of many factors for plantation management and business decisions. What do characteristics have to do with decisions and management?Caturra, another famous variety, is a mutated variety from Bourbon. They were found and named after the town, Caturra in Brazil. Notice how varieties usually get their name geographically. Caturra is only one gene different from Bourbon - distance between branches and leaves. The coffee trees are shorter, bushier and has higher yield. This helps in production as fruits are easily reached by hand and guaranteed to have an extensive amount of coffee. Caturra coffee tree produces so much that they risk dying from overbearing. Caturra variety is a perfect example for demonstrate how variety may affect decision making for business and plantation management. In the business point of view, Caturra bears fruity coffee and produces an extensive amount of fruits at a period of time. Farmers need to manage the farm properly to avoid Caturra from over produce. Their short bushy plant structure made harvesting job easier for workers to obtain these red or yellow fruit.
Now you might ask. If you think that logical deduction is good enough to decide to plant a certain variety for years, think again.
Timor Hybrid is an interspecific hybrid variety which means this variety is a cross between two different species, Arabica and Robusta. This variety is common in Timor island, Indonesia. They have disease resistance traits from Robusta species and flavors from Arabica species. Disease resistance is good for coffee plants as Arabica varieties are notoriously known for their fragility as compared to their companion, Robusta. Their tasting notes, however, may not possess much flavors like an Arabica variety would. Tasting notes still play a major role in coffee industry. The SL-28 and SL-34 are two of many varieties that has been researched by Scott Laboratories in the 1930s. They picked a couple of varieties to research and they bore good result. Although these two varieties are both susceptible to coffee leaf rust but they have distinct fruit flavors. Especially SL28 which usually blackcurrant notes.
The record-breaking coffee, Gesha variety in Panama, has been a constant topic in many coffee conversation. Its exotic flavors and tasting notes is worth the time and effort to talk about, especially the variety "Gesha". Gesha variety originates from a town called Gesha in Ethiopia and it can be found in Costa Rica and Columbia. Somehow, Gesha variety just flowed with Panama, demonstrating full characteristics. Besides geographical differences, it is not known why this variety specifically "chose" Panama to showcase its exotic flavors than the other countries. The journey to understanding variety's "choice" is an on-going educational process. These varieties exhibits importance of valuable tasting notes in a cup than availability of coffee like commercial coffees available in the shelves of the market. Many plantations are heading to that direction - to hunt and maintain for valuable tasting notes of a variety.
Coffee variety may not be an active decision breakers for most coffee purchase. However, variety works like a quality and physical characteristic classification. When Gesha variety is on demand, many plantations focused on Gesha variety as they believe this variety has some good qualities that stood out from other existing varieties. Could we say that all varieties would taste the same? Costa Rican Gesha and Panama Gesha would definitely be different with all other factors counted in - geographical properties, climate change, processing and beans handling etc. But they bore similar characteristics - complexity, juicy, exotic, etc.
These information comes down to this point: Even if variety does not determine your coffee purchase decision, knowing its variety is equivalent to equipping yourself with extensive respect, appreciation and knowledge for coffee. There are far more varieties identified than the ones mentioned in this article and each of them is worth reading about. As the journey of coffee is made of cross roads, it is a journey of learning and sharing knowledge for the love of coffee. Now, sip up and meditate. For the knowledge of variety is gratifying long bumpy journey.
