# The Bix Six Beans



## MikeHag (Mar 13, 2011)

Coffee beans and wine grapes. Parallels are often drawn between the two. A master roaster refines his palate just like a master sommelier, and both learn appropriate terminology to describe their speciality.

With wine grapes there are a handful that the general public have heard of, which make up 80% of quality wines sold.

The Whites: Chardonnay, Sauvignon Blanc, Riesling.

The Reds: Pinot Noir, Merlot, Cabernet Sauvignon, Syrah (aka Shiraz)

*Is there a similar 'shortlist' with beans? *I don't mean "what's your favourite?". I mean, which are the great beans that make up the majority of global consumption, whilst still being 'speciality' coffee?


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## profspudhed (Mar 18, 2011)

I'm not sure by any means but wouldn't it be robusta tipica and arabica in coffee? the flavour is largely defined by its geography rather than variety of plant if I'm right, which I may well not be

Sent from my HTC Dream using Tapatalk


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## Glenn (Jun 14, 2008)

Yes, there is

Coffee is categorised by varietal

eg Bourbon, Geisha, Pacamara, Typica, Caturra, Catuai (to name but a few)

Were you looking for information by producing country?


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## MikeHag (Mar 13, 2011)

Thanks chaps - food for thought.

I'm trying to avoid classification by country, because there's no way to produce a shortlist that way. Just as wine can be classified by country but the grape varietal (e.g. merlot) is the 'root' that is commonly used in different countries.

Having looked here

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coffee_varieties

and here

http://www.coffeeresearch.org/agriculture/varietals.htm

...varietals does seem to be what I'm after.

*So the question (now refined a little) is, which are the top (say 6 to 8) varietals in use throughout the world?*

*
*

I'll go off and do some research of my own, but if anyone knows then that would be great.

Cheers!


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## garydyke1 (Mar 9, 2011)

Isnt 'typica' not only a named varietal but also a ''cop-out / generic term'' for a bean from a particular region and they dont actually know its genetics?


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## Glenn (Jun 14, 2008)

Some of the varietals in the Top 8 will not be used in speciality coffee if you are making that distinction

Have you tried Mercanta or similar importer for details?


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## MikeHag (Mar 13, 2011)

Any that are not used in speciality coffee aren't what I'm looking for. Only the top 8 or so high quality ones. If I can find the right person at Mercanta they would be good to speak to. I'll be at Caffe Culture next month, so perhaps I'll meet some folks there with an interest in this.

Here's where I'm going with it. I want to make speciality coffee more accessible to the public, and I'm investigating ways of doing that. It occurs to me that over recent years the UK population has become more capable of speaking about wine and knowing what they like, without having to become 'wine geeks', and it needs to be the same with speciality coffee.

One of the reasons wine is more accessible is that it has been simplified in its presentation to customers. You'll often hear people say "my favourite wine is a Sauvignon Blanc". In reality it's quite a strange thing to say as a Sauv Blanc can be completely different depending upon (amongs other things) which country it came from. But nonetheless, customers have greater confidence when buying and when talking about it, and therefore they buy more.

The marketing of speciality coffee needs that simplicity, especially as global bean supply decreases and prices go up, which will eventually result in customers needing to feel comfortable with spending more money on increasingly expensive coffee. They will want to understand it, but all the technobabble spouted by coffee geeks (e.g. "I'm getting hints of old tyre, a scent of Pak Choy, and ... definitely slate roof tiles") is all a bit too Jilly Goolden to the average punter.

In general, the public understand wine better by knowing which of the top six 'high quality' grape varietals they like.

It would help them if the coffee industry could present them with a similar way of thinking about coffee, so that's what I'm experimenting with achieving for my own customers.

I might be completely wasting my time, but it seems right to me at this point.


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## RolandG (Jul 25, 2010)

I can follow your thinking. There are lots of varietals out there, and this is made more complicated by farms sometimes making up lots from several varietals, sometimes not knowing what varietals they are using or using a name that is different to the same varietal's name in other places. Some are easy to spot if you know what you're looking for - Maragogyp and Pacamara for example - but most are very hard to tell apart with confidence after processing etc.

Steve's done posts on some varietals, but they aren't particularly the "top x" http://www.hasbean.co.uk/pages/Varietals.html

Unfortunately, in comparison to wine, varietals aren't particularly predictable. Although I'm not a wine drinker, it certainly seems that wine drinkers can use their preferences to make informed decisions about what they'll like. I don't think the same is true with coffee varietals - processing method, roasting, terroir and preparation all have huge impacts and make using varietal alone not practical.

I suppose the factor most accessible to many people is processing - the natural vs washed difference is pretty consistent and one people can relate to.


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