Typica vs. Bourbon
The two old lines most of the world's arabica descends from: how they parted, where each went, and what the catalogue records for the two varieties that carry the names.
In short
Typica and Bourbon are the two names at the top of most arabica family trees. Each is used in two senses, and it helps to keep them apart: there is a Typica variety and a Bourbon variety, which a farmer can plant, and there is a Typica group and a Bourbon group, which are everything descended from each.
The two are not distant relatives. Both come from the same small set of plants taken out of Yemen. The World Coffee Research catalogue says that coffee growing in Latin America still rests to a large extent on cultivars developed from the two, and that this contributes to a significant genetic bottleneck for arabica. What separates them is mostly the route each took.
Where the two lines parted
Sourced
Ethiopia to Yemen
Arabica is native to Ethiopia, and historians believe seed was taken from the forests of the south-west to Yemen, where it was grown as a crop. The catalogue reports genetic tests showing the seed that made that journey was related to both later lines.
Yemen to India
By the late 1600s coffee from Yemen was growing in India. Fingerprinting of old Indian varieties suggests both lines were present in that introduction.
India to Java: the Typica line
In 1696 and 1699 the Dutch sent seed from the Malabar coast of India to Java. The catalogue says the Typica line likely separated here, and not on a direct voyage from Yemen as is often told.
Java to Amsterdam to the Americas
A single plant went from Java to the Amsterdam botanical garden in 1706, and from there, by way of Paris and the Dutch and French colonies, across the Caribbean and Latin America during the eighteenth century.
Yemen to Bourbon island
The French tried three times, in 1708, 1715 and 1718, to establish coffee from Yemen on the island now called La Réunion. A small number of plants from the second and third attempts survived, and until the mid-nineteenth century the coffee did not leave the island.
Bourbon to Africa and Brazil
French missionaries carried it to East Africa from the mid-1800s, and it reached Brazil around 1860, from where it spread north.
The sequence as given in the World Coffee Research catalogue's history of the two lineages. The catalogue words the separation of the Typica line as likely, not certain.
Why Bourbon replaced Typica on so many farms
Sourced
Until the 1940s most coffee in Central America was Typica. The catalogue gives the reason it lost ground in one sentence: it is both low yielding and highly susceptible to the major coffee diseases. Bourbon is susceptible too, but the catalogue rates its yield a band higher, and across much of the Americas it took Typica's place.
Then the same thing happened to Bourbon. The catalogue records that in Latin America it has largely been replaced by varieties descended from it, naming Caturra, Catuaí and Mundo Novo, though it is still grown in El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras and Peru. Typica is still widely planted in Peru, the Dominican Republic and Jamaica.
What was bred from each
Sourced
- From Typica
- The catalogue records Maragogipe and Pache as natural mutations of Typica, and several regional selections. Typica is also sold under local names, among them Blue Mountain in Jamaica.
- From Bourbon
- Caturra, Pacas and Villa Sarchi are each recorded as natural mutations of Bourbon that made the plant compact. They became the parents breeders reached for when they wanted a small tree.
- From both
- Mundo Novo is recorded as a cross of Typica and Bourbon, and Catuaí as Mundo Novo crossed with Caturra, so a great deal of what is planted today carries both lines.
Why the two names are unreliable in East Africa
Sourced
The catalogue cautions that there are many Bourbon-like varieties in East Africa, and that none exactly matches the distinct Bourbon variety found in Latin America. Seed moved with missions and settlers, was selected locally, and was named by where it had come from.
Genetic testing has since moved some names from one family to the other. The Kenyan selection SL34 was long taken for Bourbon because of the mission coffee it was selected from, and tests place it with Typica. A family name on a bag is a claim about ancestry, and until recently it was a claim nobody could check.
What the comparison does not tell you about the cup
Tendency, not a guarantee
The catalogue rates both varieties very good for quality potential at high altitude. That is a category for what a variety can do under good management at the right altitude, and it is the same for both. It is not a description of flavour, and the catalogue offers none that separates them.
Claims that one is sweeter or the other cleaner are common in the trade and are not supported by anything read for this page. Two coffees labelled Typica and Bourbon will usually differ more by where they were grown and how they were processed than by the name.
What to do next
- Typica — The variety itself, and the drawing of what the catalogue records as descending from it.
- Bourbon — The other line, and the compact mutations that came from it.
- SL28 vs SL34 — Two Kenyan selections that testing placed in different families.
- Java — A variety long mistaken for Typica that belongs to neither line.
At a glance
| Aspect | Typica | Bourbon |
|---|---|---|
| What it is | Traditional variety | Traditional variety |
| Genetic group | Bourbon and Typica group, Typica-related | Bourbon and Typica group, Bourbon-related |
| The catalogue's lineage field | Also called Criollo (Creole), Indio (Indian), Arábigo (Arabica), Plume Hidalgo, Blue Mountain, and Sumatra. | Bourbon-like genetic background. |
| Stature | Tall | Tall |
| Bean size | Large | Average |
| Yield potential | Low | Medium |
| Quality potential at high altitude | Very good | Very good |
| Coffee leaf rust | Susceptible | Susceptible |
| Coffee berry disease | Susceptible | Susceptible |
| Nematodes | Susceptible | Susceptible |