Coffee Varieties: Blue Mountain
Jamaican Blue Mountain coffee is known throughout the world. As it turns out Blue Mountain is its own coffee variety although the same coffee is called PNG Gold in Papua New Guinea and Boyo in Cameroon. Aside from its lack of bitterness this coffee is derived from typica and has some natural resistance to coffee berry disease.
Tipica Coffees
Tipica originated in Yemen and is the forbearer of many sub varieties in use today.
Coffee varieties are the subspecies of coffee that occur by natural selection and by selective breeding. Disease resistance, yield and flavor vary from variety to variety. Variety or breed selection is critical to the planter as he or she must pick the optimal variety for altitude, sun or shade, soil conditions and climate. Regarding coffee varieties here are a couple of terms:
Variety: A variety is a smaller group than a subspecies and a larger group than a form. A variety has most of the characteristics of the species but differs in specific ways.
Cultivar: This is a cultivated variety and is developed using agricultural breeding techniques. The coffee in your cup is most likely a cultivar. Two common cultivars are Bourbon and Typica.
Typica
Typica is an old coffee variety and the father of numerous sub-varieties. Typica came from Yemen. Dutch traders carried it to Malabar, India and later on to Indonesia. Subsequently Typica arrived at the French colony of Martinique in the West Indies. Natural selection and breeding have produced the following new varieties:
Criollo (South America)
Arabigo (Americas)
Kona (Hawaii)
Pluma Hidalgo (Mexico)
Garundang (Sumatra)Blue Mountain (Jamaica, Papua New Guinea, Cameroon)
San Bernado & San Ramon (Brazil)
Kents & Chickumalgu (India)
The end result of years of development is the mild, flavorful and famous Blue Mountain coffee variety as well as Kona coffee from Hawaii.
Kona
Kona coffee is also a typica coffee and equally as famous as Blue Mountain.
Organic Kona coffee is grown on mountainous slopes on the Big Island of Hawaii. Kona coffee benefits from mild weather and moist growing conditions as well as the volcanic soil of the Hawaiian Islands. Because of its scarcity as well as its quality Kona coffee is one of the world’s most expensive coffees. Organic Kona coffee is therefore rarer and somewhat more expensive. Coffee was first grown in the Hawaiian Island in the early 19 th century from cuttings brought form Brazil. The Kona brand itself dates back to the 19 th century and an Englishman, Henry Nicholas Greenwell. Although Hawaiian coffee was first grown on large plantations a crash in the worldwide coffee market in 1899 led owners to lease or sell land to their workers. This started a tradition of family operated coffee farms of five to twelve acres. The fact that families continue to grow on the same land has led to the tradition of sustainable coffee growing that is the hallmark of growing healthy organic coffee.
Both Kona and Blue Mountain have their adherents and both are great coffees.
Jamaican Blue Mountain Coffee
Blue Mountain coffee from Jamaica has become a sought after and expensive coffee. Eighty percent of this coffee is exported to Japan. In Jamaica, in order to be Blue Mountain coffee, it has to be grown between 3000 and 5000 feet. Anything above or below that altitude is not Blue Mountain coffee despite coming from the same coffee variety!
International Coffee Day
The first International Coffee Day was October 1, 2015. Sponsored by the International Coffee Association this day is meant to promote fair trade coffee and raise awareness of the plight of coffee growers. The promoters hope to make this a yearly event. Your favorite coffee shop may offer free cups of coffee but don’t expect to get your most fancy coffee house coffee for free! Since the focus of the day is fair trade coffee, just what is that?
Fair Trade Coffee
What is fair trade coffee? Years ago we wrote this:
Is fair trade coffee the same as healthy organic coffee? How does fair trade coffee differ from organic coffee and when are they the same thing? The original motive behind fair trade coffee was to develop coffee trade relationships based on respect, transparency, and dialogue between producers and sellers. The point is to guarantee fair prices to small coffee growers who would otherwise have no access to fair pricing. At its heart fair trade coffee is an idea for social betterment more so than a way to make better coffee. There is a “Fairtrade” coffee brand for which coffee packers pay a fee, a “Fairtrade” logo and brand name. Coffee carrying this name must come from an associated cooperative. In general cooperatives only sell part of their harvest as fair trade coffee because of lack of demand.
Demand, Certification and Cost
One of the premier coffee growers in Panama grows coffee that is organic in all respects except the name. The grower in question paid Bio Latina to certify his coffee on behalf of the USDA.
If your organic coffee originated in Latin America it is likely that it was subject to Bio Latina organic coffee certification. Bio Latina is located in Lima, Peru. The company certifies farms, ranches, and forests for sustainable practices on behalf of organizations throughout the world. Bio Latina certifies in Bolivia, Peru, Colombia, Nicaragua and Venezuela as well as in Panamá, Honduras, Guatemala, El Salvador Ecuador and Mexico. The label on a bag of healthy organic coffee from Latin America may say that it is USDA certified. However, it may be Bio Latina organic coffee certification on behalf of the USDA that guarantees a pure cup of organic coffee.
And the grower in question paid the required fee for three years. And he never sold any more coffee and never was able to charge any more for his coffee. After three years this well-known Panama coffee grower continued to make the great Panama Mountain Grown Organic Coffee that he always did, but without the certification. Our point is that the same situation exists with fair trade coffee. The value of International Coffee Day is to increase awareness of the situation and encourage coffee drinkers to specify Fair Trade when they purchase at the coffee shop and look for fair trade when they visit the coffee roaster. Fair trade coffees are typically of very high quality and usually organic in practice even if they are not officially certified as such.
Coffee and Your Heart
There seems to be more good news every about coffee and your heart. Several months ago researchers reported that coffee drinkers have lower risk of having calcium deposits in their coronary arteries. Drinking three to four cups a day maximized the benefit of avoiding clogged coronary arteries as reported in Live Science. This means a lower risk of heart attacks.
The study of healthy young adults in Korea found that, compared with people who didn’t drink coffee, those who drank three to five cups of java per day had a lower risk of having calcium deposits in their coronary arteries, which is an indicator of heart disease. (The coronary arteries are the vessels that bring oxygenated blood to the heart muscle itself.)
The study participants who drank three to four cups had the lowest risk of developing clogged arteries seen in the study, said Dr. Eliseo Guallar, an epidemiologist at Johns Hopkins University Bloomberg School of Public Health in Baltimore, Maryland, and co-author of the study published today (March 2) in the journal Heart.
It seems like the evidence for coffee as a health benefit just keeps coming.
Coffee Safe for Your Heart
Another issue with coffee and your heart was the concern that too much coffee would precipitate a condition called atrial fibrillation. Fox News reports that coffee is safe for your heart in this regard. (Republished from Live Science)
Researchers found that drinking coffee was not associated with an increased risk of a condition called atrial fibrillation, which is a type of irregular heartbeat, in either men or women.
“This is largest prospective study to date on the association between coffee consumption and risk of atrial fibrillation. We find no evidence that high consumption of coffee increases the risk of atrial fibrillation,” Susanna Larsson, an associate professor of epidemiology at the Karolinska Institute in Sweden and lead author on the study, said in a statement.
It was a long term concern that since coffee is a stimulant that it would cause heart beat irregularities. But, that is not the case so drink up and enjoy. And there are more health benefits.
Benefits of Coffee
Read our article, Benefits of Drinking Coffee for more info about the benefits of coffee and especially organic coffee. Here is just the intro.
There are a lot of benefits of drinking coffee but there are especially benefits of organic coffee. Coffee drinkers are less likely to develop any of several types of cancer. Drink coffee regularly and you are less likely to get type II diabetes, Alzheimer’s disease, Parkinson’s disease, or depression. There are, unfortunately a whole host of chemical impurities that may be found in a cup of regular coffee. The benefits or organic coffee over regular coffee hinge on the fact that healthy organic coffee is free of these substances.
A Hundred and Thirty Chemicals That You Can Do Without
Health authorities in Australia have found that more than 130 different impurities may be found in a cup of regular coffee. These contaminants include metals such as aluminum and zinc, pesticide residues, ochratoxin A, acrylamide, furan, and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons. Some polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons are found to cause cancer. Furans have been associated with skin disorders, liver problems, certain kinds of cancers, impairment to the reproductive, endocrine, and immune system, as well as effects on embryonic development.
Coffee and your heart appear to get along well. Drink up and enjoy.
Can Coffee Save Brazil’s Economy?
Brazil, the largest coffee producer in the world by far, is in dismal economic straits. The Great Recession followed by slowing of the Chinese economy has greatly reduced exports of raw materials. The Brazilian economy is in recession and the Brazilian currency, the real, has fallen sixty percent versus the US dollar in the last year. Nevertheless, Brazil is the world’s leading exporter of soy beans, sugar and beef as well as coffee. Because the dollar has risen versus the real there is more profit to be made (in reales) from exporting soybeans, sugar, beef and coffee. Nevertheless, according to Bloomberg Business Brazil should not count on coffee to save it from the recession.
The hope was that the real’s 31 percent drop against the dollar this year would make Brazilian companies more competitive and deter the consumption of imports. Brazil is the world’s largest exporter of commodities including soy, beef, sugar and coffee, and also manufactures airplanes and cars.
But exports’ share of the economy is little changed since 2011 and they account for just 11.5 percent of Brazil’s gross domestic product.
While coffee growers, processors and exporters do well (in reales) while the dollar is strong the Brazilian economy is very large and exports only count for eleven and half percent of the GDP.
Good for Brazilian Coffee Growers
Coffee is traded on the international market and the price is always quoted in dollars. According to a report by Research and Markets the coffee market in Brazil will increase slightly by volume and more by revenue over the next four years.
The analysts forecast the coffee market in Brazil to grow at a CAGR of 4.92% by revenue and 1.19% by volume during 2015-2019.
The volume increase has to do with the weather and the world market. The larger revenue increase has to do with the weak real and the strong dollar. Although coffee exports will not save Brazil’s economy they will be good for the local coffee industry.
Coffee in Brazil
Brazil produces a third of all the coffee grown in the world. As of 2011 its total production was 2.6 million tons. Exports in that year from Brazil were as follows:
Arabica Green Coffee 1.8 million tons
Robusta Green Coffee 160 thousand tons
Processed Coffee 200 thousand tons
Coffee accounted for 3.5% of total Brazilian exports in 2011.
If Brazil Recovers from Its Recession
If Brazil recovers from its recession, that will have little effect on coffee exports and the price of coffee. On the other hand a stronger real will mean lower profits for Brazilian coffee farmers. The one effect that currency has on coffee from Brazil is that coffee that has been stored can be kept in storage or sold. When the dollar is strong there is an incentive to sell stores of coffee and pocket the short term profit. This temporarily drives prices down as it floods the market with coffee. And by decreasing stores of coffee this sets the coffee market up for higher prices in the future.
Pour Over Coffee
If you are interested in a great cup of healthy organic coffee consider making pour over coffee. This is a traditional way to make small quantities of coffee and has now caught on with the likes of Starbucks. The short version is that all you need for pour over coffee is ground coffee, boiling hot water, a filter and a cup. And then there are the more complicated versions. Here are a couple of examples followed by our own “down home” method learned from the in-laws in the Eje Cafetero, Manizales, Colombia.
Still Active 15,000 Volcano, Nevada Ruiz
Manizales, Colombia
Simple Ways
Health presents the simplest way to make pour over coffee with a plug for a few products available on Amazon.com.
Grind the coffee
I use a hand-crank Burr grinder ($20, amazon.com) because I think the coffee comes out better, and there’s something satisfying about grinding it by hand. (Plus, I get a quick little arm and shoulder workout in, first thing-no joke.) But you can skip this step and use pre-ground or make it quicker by grinding yours in an electric grinder.
Transfer it to a filter
Because I use a porcelain Hario ceramic coffee dripper ($17, amazon.com), I use their paper filters ($7, amazon.com), too. You can buy other drippers, of course, but I prefer not to use plastic, and I think the coffee tastes cleaner with these filters than others I’ve used. Once the coffee is in the filter in the cone, give it a little shake to even out the grinds.
Heat up the water
Do this while grinding the beans. Here’s where I deviate from the die-hards. A true coffee expert would tell you to use a special kettle with a thin spout for precise pouring. I just use my regular kettle; the same one my husband uses for (gasp!) tea.
Pour over
Time to brew. Pour in just enough water to wet the grounds, then let it stand for 30 seconds to a minute. This allows the grounds to “bloom,” resulting in more even coffee extraction for the rest of the brew (you’ll see the grounds kind of puff up slightly). After the bloom, continue pouring, a bit at a time (just cover the grounds, don’t fill the filter all the way), until your cup is brewed.
This looks like a workable approach and there are more who want to have their say.
Must Have Gear
The Cheat Sheet offers lots of must have gear for making pour over coffee. These folks participate in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program so you can guess where to buy their suggested products.
You can make great-tasting coffee a number of ways, but one surefire method is to use a pour-over brewer. Unlike a traditional drip machine, pour-over brewers let you evenly infuse every granule of coffee with hot water. That way, the flavor is perfectly extracted from the beans, minimizing bitterness and ensuring a full-bodied cup of coffee. If that sounds appealing, then you’ll definitely want to give a pour-over brewer a shot.
Making great coffee with a pour-over brewer is surprisingly simple. Here are a few key pieces of gear to get you started.
These folks are promoting lots of products. The one I do like is the paperless coffee dripper because it reduces waste. Or you could go with what my in-laws use in the Eje Cafetero where they grow the good stuff.
Back to the Basics
In our article about coffee bloom we mentioned how pouring hot water over freshly ground coffee beans releases both carbon dioxide gas (the bloom) and healthy antioxidants as well.
Making Coffee the Pour Over Way
What is a coffee bloom and is it a good or bad thing? The coffee bloom is the release of carbon dioxide gas when hot water is poured over ground coffee beans. Carbon dioxide gas is trapped inside coffee beans when they are roasted. Darker roasts contain more carbon dioxide and lighter roasts contain less. Roasted whole beans retain the carbon dioxide longer than roasted and ground coffee and storing in a cool environment keeps the carbon dioxide longer. The antioxidant compounds that give coffee its health benefits and flavor are trapped in the carbon dioxide as well.
Coffee Bloom the Pour Over Way
At home I typically use the pour over coffee method to make coffee for three at breakfast and anywhere from three to six at lunch. We heat water in an old tea kettle. The filter is a white cloth bag that stains with use. It is rinsed after each use and washed once a week. The receiving coffee pot is older than the tea kettle and was purchased from a street vender on Avenida Santander in Manizales, Colombia. Our coffee is either from Panama or Colombia, preferably organic but any export quality coffee works for my family.
And Enjoy Your Pour Over Coffee
Coffee Varieties: Gesha
We have written quite a bit about Panama mountain grown organic coffee. This is the first time we have mentioned Gesha coffee, a gourmet variety grown in the highlands of Chiriquí Province in the west of the country. Panama is the last Central American country before you get to Colombia (South America). Once part of Gran Colombia, the Panama has a climate along its mountainous spine similar to the much larger Eje Cafetero in Colombia. It is in the coffee growing region of Panama near the town of Boquete that planters grew a left rust resistant Ethiopian coffee variety. Gesha gets its name from the Ethiopian village where it was first found. Planters tried Gesha in the 1950s but it was when the variety was resurrected in the early 2000s that its quality was first noted. Today Gesha coffee sells for as much as $35,000 for a 100 pound bag at auction! Considering that standard green coffee sells for a couple of dollars a pound, the Gesha coffee variety is in the stratosphere.
About the Gesha Coffee Variety
Gesha is an heirloom varietal. The seed stock is extremely pure. It has not been cross bred or altered. It is a faithful replica of the original seed stock from around Gesha, Ethiopia. The plant was tried in Central America in the 1950s because of its disease resistance. However, it only grows above 3,000 feet and is rather low yielding. It is said that because Gesha plant grows fewer berries it puts more flavor into each one. Many growers gave up on Gesha until companies like Starbucks raised public awareness of high quality coffees.
Where Can You Find the Gesha Coffee Variety?
Hacienda la Esmeralda is a coffee farm in Panama famous for its small plots of Gesha coffee. However, the Gesha coffee variety is also grown in selected locations in Honduras, Costa Rica and Colombia. An unique Gesha variety is called Santuario and sells typically for about $80 a pound.
What Does Gesha Taste Like?
Rather than the chocolate and mellow-but-crisp acidity that great coffees from Panama typically express, Gesha are more delicate and intensely floral showing their relationship to the heirloom Ethiopian variety from which it descended. Jasmine or orange blossom, sweet clover honey, lightly toasted green tea are typical tastes of a high end Gesha variety.
Organic or Not
Gesha is still disease resistant coffee variety that requires fewer chemicals to maintain its health. As such many Gesha coffees are as-good-as-organic without the organic coffee label.
$11 a Cup
The Coloradoan asks, what does an $11 cup of coffee taste like when reviewing the Gesha coffee variety.
It sells for $88 a pound to the retailers who can get their hands on it and $11 a cup to those of us curious enough to try it.
“God in a cup,” some have said of the roasted and brewed bean, worshiped for its soft taste and incredibly floral aroma.
And the taste is like tea – sweet jasmine, then crisp bergamot, also a hint of graham cracker.
And, connoisseurs will be livid if you add any cream, sugar or liqueur to this exotic albeit expensive coffee variety.
Coffee Popsicles for a Hot Day
A summer favorite is iced coffee and so is bottlled cold brew coffee. Taking it a step further how about coffee popsicles for a hot day? You can make coffee popsicles out of any home brewed, cold brewed or coffee house coffee. All you need are ingredients, popsicle molds and a freezer. Here are a few favorites.
Cappuccino Popsicle
Cappuccino is made with espresso, milk and steamed foam. Consider adding a little chocolate for a mocha flavor and dusting the surface of the mixture with powdered nutmeg. Make as much as you like and pour into popsicle molds. Leave in the freezer until frozen hard. Remember that by adding coffee, milk, chocolate, sugar and more to the water that you are freezing you will depress the freezing point and it will require more time to freeze than when just making ice cubes. Take out on a hot, sultry day and enjoy.
Plain Black Coffee Popsicles
Our preference is always whole bean roasted healthy organic coffee. Starting with the best beans make your coffee, add to popsicles molds and freeze. These will be quicker to make than more complicated coffee house coffees or even coffee with cream and sugar.
Cold All the Way
If you want to stick with the cold theme in making coffee popsicles for a hot day make cold brew coffee and freeze it. For a refresher on making your own cold brewed coffee:
Cold brewed coffee is about two thirds less acidic than expresso or percolator coffee. It has to do with extracting caffeine and healthy antioxidants but less acid using a slow, cool extraction process. Basically the coffee just diffuses out of the ground beans over a few hours.
Our preference is to start with organic coffee, preferably one of the Colombian organic coffee brands. Grind the beans but coarse and not fine like you would with expresso. Ideally use bottled water and not chlorinated from the tap. If you do use tap water pour the water into a pitcher and allow to sit for several hours to let the chlorine evaporate from the tap water. Grind four and half ounces (1 ¾ cup) of coffee. Add three and a half cups of cold water to a two quart pitcher and then the coffee grounds. Cover, place in the refrigerator and forget for a dozen hours.
The rap against iced coffee is that pouring hot brewed coffee or even espresso over ice typically results on dilute albeit cold coffee. Cold brewed coffee is often stronger than regular coffee. Before serving pour the coffee through a filter or use a French press to remove the coffee grounds. Add a little water if the coffee is too strong for your taste and a little ice if you want it to be colder. Many folks add milk, sugar, chocolate or even liquor making it cold brewed liqueur coffee. This is an ideal drink for a hot summer day but works well in front of a roaring fire in winter as well. Check our liqueur coffee article for a list of liqueurs and how to make.
This is the purist approach to making coffee popsicles for a hot day. It is more work but rewarding in the end.
Coffee Varieties: Colombian
Coffee varieties evolve through natural selection or selective breeding. Both factors come into play with Colombian coffees. The specific varieties from which traditional Colombian coffee is derived are typica and bourbon. Colombia is the third leading coffee producer in the world, the second leading producer of Arabica coffees and probably the most reliable source of large quantities of the best Arabica coffees. In recent years Colombian coffee varieties have changed due to replanting after coffee leaf rust infestations.
Caturra vs Arabica - Colombia
Coffee Leaf Rust
A seemingly eternal threat to growing healthy organic coffee is a fungus that is native to the tropics where coffee is grown. Leaf rust attacks coffee crops and leaf rust kills organic coffee crops. If an organic grower is unable to treat the problem with non-chemical means he risks losing his crop and his livelihood. The fungus’ proper name is Hemileia vastatrix. When it is not controlled the disease kills coffee plants and reduces coffee growers to poverty.
Leaf Rust Resistant Colombian Arabica Coffee Varieties
Colombian coffee varieties today include two leaf rust resistant varieties, Colombian and Castillo.
The story of Colombian leaf rust resistant coffee is inspiring. Leaf rust is a fungal disease that has devastated coffee plantations as far back as the mid to late 19th century. Those with an interest in history may know that Sri Lanka (old Ceylon) used to be a coffee producer until the leaf rust wiped out all production after which the nation switched to growing tea. The coffee leaf rust spread from the East Indies to South Asia and Africa and eventually to the new world. Today a plague of coffee leaf rust threatens the livelihoods of coffee growers and workers throughout Central America. Fortunately for the coffee producing nation of Colombia, the workers at the Cenicafé have found a cure. Cenicafé is a research organization funded by the Colombian Coffee Growers Federation – the folks who bring you Juan Valdez coffee . In the early 1970’s coffee leaf rust was found in the Americas. In the early 1980’s Cenicafé started work on producing a Colombian leaf rust resistant coffee. The Colombian leaf rust resistant coffee comes in two varieties, Colombian and Castillo. The first is a cross between an old Colombian variety, Caturra, and a rust-resistant strain from Southeast Asia, the Timor hybrid. Castillo is an offshoot of further cross breeding of the first Colombian leaf rust resistant coffee strain. Replanting with Colombian leaf rust resistant coffee in Colombia has reduced the incidence of leaf rust from 40% to 5% from 2011 to 2013.
Colombian coffee varieties come in regular and organic coffee. The difference is not in the variety planted but in whether or not sustainable agricultural practices are used and certified. Certification of organic coffee in Colombia is commonly for the United States Department of Agriculture, the European certification agency and Colombian certification. If you are interested in Colombian coffee varieties please feel free to contact us at Buy Organic Coffee and we will be glad to help.
Organic Coffee Colombia
Coffee Varieties: Typica
Coffee varieties are the subspecies of coffee that occur by natural selection and by selective breeding. Disease resistance, yield and flavor vary from variety to variety. Variety or breed selection is critical to the planter as he or she must pick the optimal variety for altitude, sun or shade, soil conditions and climate. Regarding coffee varieties here are a couple of terms:
Variety: A variety is a smaller group than a subspecies and a larger group than a form. A variety has most of the characteristics of the species but differs in specific ways.
Cultivar: This is a cultivated variety and is developed using agricultural breeding techniques. The coffee in your cup is most likely a cultivar. Two common cultivars are Bourbon and Typica.
Typica
Typica is an old coffee variety and the father of numerous sub-varieties. Typica came from Yemen. Dutch traders carried it to Malabar, India and later on to Indonesia. Subsequently Typica arrived at the French colony of Martinique in the West Indies. Natural selection and breeding have produced the following new varieties:
- Criollo (South America)
- Arabigo (Americas)
- Kona (Hawaii)
- Pluma Hidalgo (Mexico)
- Garundang (Sumatra)
- Blue Mountain (Jamaica, Papua New Guinea)
- San Bernado & San Ramon (Brazil)
- Kents & Chickumalgu (India)
We have written about Kona coffee, a variety that is famous for its quality.
Organic Kona coffee is grown on mountainous slopes on the Big Island of Hawaii. Kona coffee benefits from mild weather and moist growing conditions as well as the volcanic soil of the Hawaiian Islands. Because of its scarcity as well as its quality Kona coffee is one of the world’s most expensive coffees. Organic Kona coffee is therefore rarer and somewhat more expensive. Coffee was first grown in the Hawaiian Island in the early 19 th century from cuttings brought form Brazil. The Kona brand itself dates back to the 19 th century and an Englishman, Henry Nicholas Greenwell. Although Hawaiian coffee was first grown on large plantations a crash in the worldwide coffee market in 1899 led owners to lease or sell land to their workers. This started a tradition of family operated coffee farms of five to twelve acres. The fact that families continue to grow on the same land has led to the tradition of sustainable coffee growing that is the hallmark of growing healthy organic coffee. Top grades Kona coffee are Kona Extra Fancy, Kona Fancy, Kona Number 1, Kona Select, and Kona Prime.
This is just one of the fine offshoots of the Typica coffee variety. You can get Typica as regular or organic. Like the other Coffea Arabica varietals that have been developed from it, Typica coffee plants have a conical shape with a main vertical trunk and secondary verticals that grow at a slight slant. Typica is a tall plant that stands 3.5-4 meters in height. The lateral branches form 50-70° angles with the vertical stem. Typica coffee is not a high producer but is sought out for its excellent cup quality.
Coffee Varieties: Bourbon
Coffee varieties are the subspecies of coffee that occur by natural selection and by selective breeding. Disease resistance, yield and flavor vary from variety to variety. Variety or breed selection is critical to the planter as he or she must pick the optimal variety for altitude, sun or shade, soil conditions and climate. Regarding coffee varieties here are a couple of terms:
Variety: A variety is a smaller group than a subspecies and a larger group than a form. A variety has most of the characteristics of the species but differs in specific ways.
Cultivar: This is a cultivated variety and is developed using agricultural breeding techniques. The coffee in your cup is most likely a cultivar. Two common cultivars are Bourbon and Typica.
Bourbon
In the very early 18th century French planters grew coffee on what is today Réunion Island in the Indian Ocean. Under French rule the island was called Bourbon. The coffee came from Dutch traders. Mutations that occurred on that island in that climate became a favorite were exported to Latin America. Bourbon plants have as much as thirty percent more coffee beans than the Typica variety.
Offshoots of Bourbon
Subsequent breeding and natural selection resulted in several sub-varieties from Bourbon. Caturra, Kenyan K7, Orange Bourbon, Yellow Bourbon and Pacas are all offshoots of the original Bourbon coffee variety. As with all varieties and sub varieties, the offshoots keep some of the characteristics of the original and add something new.
Where Does Bourbon Grow?
El Salvador is often referred to in coffee circles as the Bourbon country. And, of course the Caturra offshoot is common in Colombia as we mention in a previous article. El Salvador gets half of its export earnings from coffee. Planters began producing coffee in El Salvador in the early 19th century. Today El Salvador produces about 90% of its coffee as shade grown. Organic coffee from El Salvador is of high quality.
Organic coffee differs from regular coffee in several aspects. The soil in which organic coffee is grown must have been verified as free from prohibited substances for at least three years. In addition there must be distinct boundaries between land on which organic coffee is grown and land where pesticides, herbicides, and prohibited chemical fertilizers are used. This guarantees that drift of substances sprayed or otherwise applied on adjacent land will not contaminate the organic plot of land. Organic coffee certification includes the adherence to a specific and verifiable plan for all practices and procedures from planting to crop maintenance, to harvest, de-husking, bagging, transport, roasting, packaging, and final transport. Along the way procedures must be in place at every step to insure that there is no contamination of the healthy organic coffee produced in pristine soil with regular coffee produced on soil exposed to herbicides, pesticides, and organic fertilizers.
If you are interested in specific coffee varieties please contact us at www.BuyOrganicCoffee.com and we will be glad to help or send you to someone who can.