In 1706, the Dutch took a single coffee plant from Java to the botanical gardens in Amsterdam. According to World Coffee Research, that one plant gave rise to the Typica variety, which colonized the Americas during the 18th century. Typica and Bourbon are the two family lines behind most modern arabica, and Typica is the one that spread west. (See Arabica vs Robusta.)
Where Typica comes from
Arabica is native to Ethiopia, and historians believe coffee seeds were first taken from the forests of southwestern Ethiopia to Yemen, where people cultivated it as a crop. Genetic tests show that the main seeds taken from Yemen were related to both Bourbon and Typica.
By the late 1600s, coffee trees had left Yemen and were growing in India. World Coffee Research notes that seeds sent out of Yemen to India by Baba Budan, around 1670, likely included both groups. The Mysore region, then known as Malabar, grew the first Indian plantations from these seeds.
How Java became the starting point
The usual telling skips India. The Dutch did try to bring seeds directly from Yemen to Batavia, today's Jakarta on the island of Java, in 1690. Those plants died in 1699 after an earthquake. Genetic fingerprinting indicates the Typica branch instead separated from Bourbon when the Dutch sent seeds from India's Malabar coast to Batavia in 1696 and 1699.
One plant, then a continent
From Java, a single coffee plant went to Amsterdam in 1706 and was given a home in the botanical gardens. In 1714, after the Utrecht peace treaty between the Netherlands and France, the mayor of Amsterdam offered a coffee plant to King Louis XIV. It was planted in the greenhouse of the Jardin des Plantes in Paris and produced seeds quickly.
From there, plants traveled along colonial trade routes.
- 1719: Dutch Guiana, now Suriname
- 1722: Cayenne, French Guiana
- 1723: Martinique, sent from Paris
- 1727: northern Brazil
- 1730: Jamaica, brought by the English from Martinique
- 1735 and 1748: Santo Domingo, then Cuba
- 1760 to 1770: southern Brazil
- 1779 and 1840: Costa Rica and El Salvador, both supplied from Cuba
From Brazil it moved on to Peru and Paraguay. In the late 18th century, cultivation spread through the Caribbean, Mexico and Colombia, and across Central America. Until the 1940s, most coffee plantations in Central America were planted with Typica.
What the plant is like
World Coffee Research describes Typica as tall, with low yield potential, large beans and bronze tips on its new leaves. The first fruit comes in year four, nutrition needs sit at medium, and the fruit ripens at an average point in the season. Farms plant 3,000 to 4,000 trees per hectare.
The catalog lists high altitude as its optimal range, which means above about 1,600 meters for farms within five degrees of the equator, above 1,300 meters between 5 and 15 degrees, and above 1,000 meters farther out. Its quality potential at high altitude is rated Very Good, and the catalog notes it is well adapted to the coldest growing conditions.
Typica is highly susceptible to coffee leaf rust, and also to nematodes and coffee berry disease. Low yield and disease susceptibility explain why farms across much of the Americas have gradually replaced it, often with Bourbon varieties. It is still widely planted in Peru, the Dominican Republic and Jamaica, where it is called Jamaica Blue Mountain.
One variety, many names
Typica also goes by Criollo, Indio, Arábigo, Plume Hidalgo, Blue Mountain and Sumatra in different places. World Coffee Research lists several related varieties on its Typica page. SL34, found mostly in Kenya, has exceptional cup quality and is highly susceptible to coffee berry disease. Caripe is an important regional variety in Monagas state in northeastern Venezuela, known for large beans and very good cup quality. BPL10, from Java, is rust-tolerant and vigorous, with limited cultivation.
What Typica tastes like
Trade sources often associate Typica with clean, bright, floral cups. World Coffee Research publishes no cupping notes for it, so these are common descriptions that no one has measured. A variety sets a plant's potential and leaves the flavor open. Farm, altitude, process and roast shape what ends up in the cup.
Typica in the family tree
Typica is one half of the line that produced Mundo Novo, a cross of Typica and Bourbon found in São Paulo. The two lines dominate coffee growing. In Brazil, which grows about 40 percent of the world's coffee, 97.55 percent of cultivars descend from Typica and Bourbon. World Coffee Research calls this a genetic bottleneck, because so much of the world's arabica draws on a small gene pool.
FAQ
Is Typica the same as arabica?
Typica is a variety of arabica, one named plant inside the species.
Is Typica rare?
It has been replaced across much of the Americas and remains widely planted in Peru, the Dominican Republic and Jamaica.
Is Typica better than Bourbon?
World Coffee Research rates both Very Good for quality potential at high altitude, and neither outranks the other. See the Bourbon guide.
Keep exploring
Bourbon, the other family line, is next in the series. Missed the start? Gesha took a different route out of Ethiopia. The Taste Discovery Quiz is free: start.brewspecialty.coffee
Sources: World Coffee Research variety catalog (Typica, Bourbon, Caripe, SL34, BPL10) and its History of Arabica; trade sources on cup profile.
