Coffee varieties refers to the diverse forms derived through selective breeding or natural selection of coffee plants. In essence they represent subspecies of the several coffee species.
Coffee beans from different places may have distinctive characteristics such as flavor (flavor criteria include terms such as "citrus-like" or "earthy"), caffeine content, body or mouthfeel, and acidity. These reflect the local environment where the coffee plants are grown, their method of process, and the genetic subspecies. In this sense, coffee can be considered similar to wine, which also demonstrates clear regional variation. Coffee from a single geographical location is called single-origin.
Contents |
All three terms have been used to refer to the various forms of coffee grown around the world.
Cultivar, the botanical term, is normally and correctly used for selections and forms of cultivated plants; it must be visually distinct from other cultivars, and it must be possible to propagate it reliably.
Variety can be described as a more common and more popular term for cultivar, especially in wine.
Varietal is a term used to describe a wine made from or belonging to a single specified variety of grape. The coffee industry has somewhat adopted this term, but instead of using it to describe a coffee of a specific variety or cultivar (e.g., Bourbon coffee), it is used in the place of the term variety or cultivar.
Coffee from the species Coffea arabica are considered to have richer flavor than Coffea robusta. C. arabica has many different varieties, each with unique characteristics. Some well-known arabica coffees include:
| Variety | Arabica | Region(s) | Comments | Ref |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Arusha | Arabica | Mount Meru in Tanzania, and Papua New Guinea | either a Typica variety or a French Mission. | [1] |
| Bergendal, Sidikalang | Arabica | Indonesia | Both are Typica varieties which survived the Leaf Rust Outbreak of the 1880s; most of the other Typica in Indonesia was destroyed. | |
| Blue Mountain | Arabica | Blue Mountains region of Jamaica. Also grown in Kenya, Hawaii, Papua New Guinea (where it is known as PNG Gold) and Cameroon (where it is known as Boyo). | A natural mutation of Typica. | |
| Bourbon | Arabica | Réunion and Latin America. | Around 1708 the French planted coffee on the island of Bourbon (now called Réunion) in the middle of the Indian Ocean, all probably from the same parent stock - the plant the Dutch gave them. Unsurprisingly, it mutated slightly and was planted throughout Brazil in the late 1800s and eventually spread through Latin America. Bourbon produces 20-30% more fruit than Typica varieties. El Salvador is known as the Bourbon Country. | |
| Caturra | Arabica | Latin and Central America | This is a mutation of the Bourbon variety, found near the town of Caturra, Brazil in the 1930s. It produces a higher yield than Bourbon, and this is generally due to the plant being shorter, higher yielding, and with less distance between the branches. A relatively recently selected botanical variety of the Coffea arabica species that generally matures more quickly, produces more coffee, and is more disease resistant than older, traditional arabica varieties.[2] In fact this mutation is not unique; it led to the formation of the Pacas variety in El Salvador (from Bourbon) and the Villa Sarchi in Costa Rica (from Bourbon). Genetically it is very similar to Bourbon although it usually produces a poorer cup quality but this is mainly due to the variety yielding more.[3] | |
| Catuai | Arabica | Latin America | This is a hybrid of Mundo Novo and Caturra bred in Brazil in the late 40s.[4] | |
| Charrieriana | Arabica? | Cameroon | This is a newly found variety from Cameroon. It has gained some press recently due to its caffeine-free nature. Not yet grown commercially, but it probably will be.[5] | |
| Colombian | Arabica | Colombia | Coffee was first introduced to the country of Colombia in the early 1800s. Today Maragogype, Caturra, Typica and Bourbon cultivars are grown. When Colombian coffee is freshly roasted it has a bright acidity, is heavy in body and is intensely aromatic. Colombia accounts for about 12% of the coffee market (by value) in the world, third in volume after Vietnam and Brazil.[6] | |
| Ethiopian Harar | Arabica | Ethiopia | From the region of Harar, Ethiopia. Known for its complex, fruity flavor that resembles a dry red wine. All three Ethiopian varieties are trademarked names with the rights owned by Ethiopia. | |
| Ethiopian Sidamo | Arabica | Ethiopia | From the Sidamo (now Oromia) region of Ethiopia as well. All three Ethiopian varieties are trademarked names with the rights owned by Ethiopia. | |
| Ethiopian Yirgacheffe | Arabica | Ethiopia | From the Yirgachefe district in the Gedeo Zone of the Southern Nations, Nationalities, and People's Region of Ethiopia. All three Ethiopian varieties are trademarked names with the rights owned by Ethiopia. [7] | |
| French Mission | Arabica | Africa | French Mission is actually Bourbon that was planted in East Africa by French Missionaries around 1897.[8] | |
| Guadeloupe Bonifieur | Arabica | Guadeloupe | [9] | |
| Hawaiian Kona | Arabica | Hawaii | Grown on the slopes of Hualalai in the Kona District on the Big Island of Hawaii. Coffee was first introduced to the Islands by Chief Boki, the Governor of Oahu, in 1825. | |
| Jamaican Blue Mountain | Arabica | Jamaica and Africa | From the Blue Mountain region of Jamaica. Due to its popularity, it fetches a high price in the market. | |
| Java | Arabica, Robusta and interspecific hybrids | Indonesia | From the island of Java, in Indonesia. This coffee was once so widely traded that "java" became a slang term for coffee. | |
| K7 | Arabica | Africa | A Kenyan selection of French Mission Bourbon selected at Legelet Estate in Muhoroni, Kenya. Selected based on cupping trials. | |
| Mayaguez | Arabica | Africa | A Bourbon cultivar grown in Rwanda. | |
| Mocha | Arabica | Yemen | Yemeni [2] coffee traded through the once major port of Mocha. Not to be confused with the preparation style (coffee with cocoa). | |
| Mundo Novo | Arabica | Latin America | Mundo Novo is a hybrid between Bourbon and Typica, crossed in the 1940s. | |
| Orange, Yellow Bourbon | Arabica | Latin America | Red Bourbon and Orange Bourbon are types of Bourbon that have been selected from spontaneous mutation. | |
| Pacamara | Arabica | Latin America | Pacamara is a hybrid between the Typica mutation Pacas and Maragogipe. It was bred in El Salvador in 1958 probably to achieve a Typica variety that produces larger beans. | |
| Pacas | Arabica | Latin America | A natural mutation of the Bourbon variety found in El Salvador in 1949. | |
| Pache Comum | Arabica | Latin America | Is a mutation of Typica first found in Santa Rosa, Guatemala. | |
| Pache Colis | Arabica | Latin America | Pache Colis is a hybrid between Pache Comum and Caturra. This variety produces distinctly larger fruit and roughly textured foliage. | |
| Panama | Arabica | Panama, Costa Rica | Gesha variety, grown in the highlands of Boquete in Chiriqui Province, highly sought after by bidders in auctions, achieving high prices. | |
| Maragogipe | Arabica | Latin America | Maragogipe is a Typica mutation, first discovered in the Maragogipe region of Brazil's state Bahia. Maragogipe is well known for producing big beans. | |
| Mundo Novo | Arabica | Latin America | Mundo Novo is a hybrid between Bourbon and Typica, crossed in the 1940s. | |
| Ruiri 11 | Arabica | Kenya | Ruiru 11 was released in 1985 by the Kenyan Coffee Research Station. While the variety is generally disease resistant, it produces a lower cup quality than K7, SL28 and 34.[10] | |
| S795 | Arabica | India, Indonesia | Probably the most commonly planted Arabica in India and Southeast Asia ,[11] known for its balanced cup and subtle flavour notes of mocca. Released during the 1940s, it is a cross between the Kents and S.288 varieties.[11] | |
| Santos | Arabica | Brazil | Brazil Santos is usually used as a grading term for Brazilian coffee rather than a variety of Arabica. The name refers to the port in Brazil where coffee passed through, and was regarded as higher quality than "Brazilian coffee". Brazilian Santos is usually of the Bourbon variety. [3] | |
| Sarchimor | Interspecific hybrid | Costa Rica, India | A hybrid between the Costa Rican Villa Sarchi and the Timor variety. Because of its Timor parent, Sarchimor is quite resistant to leaf rust disease and stem borer. As well as Costa Rica, it is grown in India. | |
| SL28 | Arabica | Kenya | A selection, by Scott Labs in Kenya from the Tanganyika Drought Resistant variety from northern Tanzania in 1931. Excellent flavour, commonly blackcurrant acidity.[12] | |
| SL34 | Arabica | Kenya | Selected by Scott Labs from the French Mission variety grown in Kenya. Selected for its superior cup quality (although inferior to SL28), but not resistant to CBD, CLR or BBC. | |
| Sumatra Mandheling and Sumatra Lintong | Arabica | Indonesia | Mandheling is named after the similarly spelled Mandailing people located in North Sumatra, Indonesia. The name is the result of a misunderstanding by the first foreign purchaser of the variety, and no coffee is actually produced in the "Mandailing region". Lintong on the other hand, is named after the Lintong district, also located in North Sumatra. | |
| Sulawesi Toraja Kalossi | Arabica | Indonesia | Grown at high altitudes on the island of Sulawesi (formerly Celebes) in the middle of the Malay archipelago in Indonesia. Kalossi is the small town in central Sulawesi which serves as the collection point for the coffee and Toraja is the mountainous area in which the coffee is grown. Sulawesi exhibits a rich, full body, well-balanced acidity (slightly more than Sumatra) and is multi-dimensional in character. It has dark chocolate and ripe fruit undertones. It is an excellent coffee for darker roasting. Because of its semi-dry processing, it may roast a bit unevenly. | |
| Timor, Arabusta | Interspecific hybrid | Indonesia | Timor is not actually a variety of coffea arabica, but a hybrid of two species of coffee; coffea arabica and coffea canephora (also called Robusta). It was found on the island of Timor around the 1940s and it was cultivated because of its resistance to leaf rust (which most arabica coffee is susceptible to). It is called Hybrido de Timor in the Americas and Tim Tim or Bor Bor in Indonesia. Another hybrid between the two species is called Arabusta but generally only found in Africa. | |
| Typica | Arabica | Worldwide | The variety we call Typica is basically the same variety of coffee the Dutch gave to King Louis the <check> back in the 17th century <check>. Although, since then it has mutated slightly to reflect its surroundings i.e. Mexican Typica is genetically slightly different to Kona (Hawaiian Typica), and they take different names to reflect this: Criollo (South America), Arabigo (Americas), Kona (Hawaii), Pluma Hidalgo (Mexico), Garundang (Sumatra), San Bernado & San Ramon (Brazil), Kents & Chickumalgu (India) | |
| Uganda | Arabica/Robusta | Although it mostly produces Robusta coffee, there is a quality Arabica bean grown there known as Bugishu around the Sipi Falls area. |
While not separate varieties of bean, unusual and very expensive robustas are the Indonesian Kopi Luwak and the Philippine "Kape Alamid[13]". The beans are collected from the droppings of the Common Palm Civet, whose digestive processes give it a distinctive flavor. In Northern Sumatra you have the Mussang which diets on the local Arabica coffees.
Although not as popular as Arabica or Robusta, other varieties of coffee also exist. these include Kape Barako or Kape Baraco, (English: Barako coffee), a Liberica.[14] variety grown in the Philippines, particularly in the provinces of Batangas and Cavite.
Brazil is world leader in production of green coffee followed by Vietnam and Colombia.
| Top Ten green coffee Producers — 11 June 2008 | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Country | Production (Tonnes) | Footnote | ||
| Brazil | 17 000 000 | |||
| Vietnam | 15 580 000 | * | ||
| Colombia | 9 400 000 | F | ||
| Indonesia | 2 770 554 | * | ||
| Ethiopia | 1 705 446 | * | ||
| Mexico | 962 000 | F | ||
| India | 954 000 | F | ||
| Peru | 677 000 | |||
| Guatemala | 568 000 | F | ||
| Honduras | 370 000 | F | ||
| World | 7 742 675 | A | ||
| No symbol = official figure, P = official figure, F = FAO estimate, * = Unofficial/Semi-official/mirror data, C = Calculated figure A = Aggregate (may include official, semi-official or estimates); |
||||
Ethiopia was producing coffee bean for 425mio $ the year 2007. 100% more than 2005 . [15]
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||