Pacamara, Typica and Java: Panama's Three Forgotten Coffee Varieties

By Juan Carlos Sosa | Boquete Coffee Traders

Everyone who reads about Panamanian coffee learns the same four names: Geisha, Catuai, Caturra, Typica. Behind them sit three varieties that almost nobody writes about — Pacamara, Typica grown as its own lot rather than as a footnote, and Java, a variety whose name is one of the great misunderstandings in coffee. All three grow here in Panama. All three are, cup for cup, some of the best value on my shelf. And all three are overlooked for reasons that have nothing to do with how they taste.

The three varieties at a glance

Why these three get overlooked

It is not a quality problem. It is an attention problem, and it has three causes.

Geisha absorbs the oxygen. When a single variety from your country sells at auction for more than thirty thousand dollars a kilo, every article written about Panamanian coffee becomes an article about Geisha. I benefit from that as much as anyone — but it means a farm can grow an exceptional Pacamara and have nobody ask about it.

They are hard to farm. Typica yields roughly 30% less than Bourbon and is badly susceptible to leaf rust, which is why most of the Americas replaced it decades ago. Pacamara plants are notoriously variable from tree to tree. Java is susceptible to rust and to nematodes. None of these are the varieties you plant to make money reliably; they are the ones you plant because you care how the coffee tastes.

Nobody is searching for them. If you do not know a variety exists, you cannot look for it. That is the actual reason this page exists.

If you want the broader picture first, my guide to Panama coffee varieties — Geisha, Catuai and Caturra covers the four you will meet most often. This page is the sequel: what you graduate to once those four are familiar.

Pacamara: the big one

Pick up a Pacamara bean and you will notice before you taste anything. They are enormous — large, oval, visibly different from every other bean in a lineup. That size is inherited, and the inheritance is the interesting part.

Pacamara was bred, not found. The Salvadoran Institute for Coffee Research began the cross in 1958, combining Pacas — a natural dwarf mutation of Bourbon — with Maragogipe, a Typica mutation famous for producing the largest seeds in commercial coffee. It took roughly thirty years of selection work before it was released to producers in the late 1980s.

Which means Pacamara is something genuinely unusual: a deliberate marriage of the two great Arabica family lines. Almost every Arabica variety grown in the Americas descends from either Bourbon or Typica. Pacamara descends from both, on purpose.

In the cup it is the most assertive of the three by a distance. Expect complex, intense aromatics, a dense and creamy body, and a flavor that swings between sweet chocolate and butterscotch on one end and citrus, red berry and stone fruit on the other. It has enough structure to survive milk and enough clarity to reward a careful pour-over. If you find most specialty coffee too delicate to feel like a real cup, Pacamara is your variety.

One honest caveat: Pacamara is famously inconsistent from plant to plant. Producers have to select hard to get a uniform lot, which is exactly why farm-level sourcing matters more with this variety than with almost any other.

Typica: the one you have already tasted

Here is the fact that reframes this variety. Jamaica Blue Mountain is Typica. Hawaiian Kona is Typica. Two of the most expensive and most romanticized coffees on earth are the same variety sold under a place name — and most people paying those prices have no idea they are buying a cultivar they could buy directly for a third of the cost.

Typica is the original. It traveled out of southwestern Ethiopia into Yemen in the 15th and 16th centuries, then to India and on to Batavia in the late 1600s. In 1706 the Dutch carried a single plant from Indonesia to the botanical garden in Amsterdam. After the Treaty of Utrecht, Amsterdam's mayor handed a descendant of that plant to France; the French moved it through Martinique and French Guiana; and by the late 1700s Typica was the dominant variety across the Americas. Nearly every Arabica tree in Latin America traces back to that one Amsterdam specimen or its Bourbon counterpart.

Then it was largely abandoned. It yields about 30% less than Bourbon and it catches leaf rust easily, so through the 20th century farms replaced it with hardier, more productive plants. What survives today survives because somebody chose flavor over yield.

And the flavor is worth the choice: clean, complex, gently sweet, with honey and almond, soft citrus and a silky medium body. Typica does not shout. It is the most elegant coffee I sell — the one to brew when you want the cup to be calm rather than exciting.

If you have read my comparisons of Hawaiian Kona against Panama Geisha or Jamaica Blue Mountain against Panama Geisha, this is the missing piece: those two famous coffees are Typica, grown somewhere with a good story. Panama grows Typica too, at higher altitude, for a fraction of the price.

Java: the one that is not from Java

This is my favorite piece of misinformation in coffee, and almost every shop selling the variety repeats it.

The Java variety is not Indonesian. It is Ethiopian. For decades it was assumed to be a Typica selection, because it was found growing on the island of Java and the Dutch had planted Typica there. Genetic work corrected that: Java is a selection from an Ethiopian landrace population called Abyssinia. It belongs to the Ethiopian landrace group — the same broad genetic family as Geisha, and nothing to do with the Typica and Bourbon lines that fill the rest of Latin America.

Its actual route is remarkable. Ethiopia to the island of Java with the Dutch in the early 1800s. From Java to Cameroon in the mid-20th century. Around twenty years of selection work there by the breeder Pierre Bouharmont, with release for cultivation between 1980 and 1990. Then to Costa Rica in 1991, carried by the CIRAD breeder Benoit Bertrand. It kept the name of a waypoint, not of a homeland.

And here is the part that matters to us: in 2016, Panama became the first country in Central America to officially recognize the Java variety. That is not marketing. Panama has a documented habit of being early on Ethiopian genetics — it is the same instinct that turned an obscure Ethiopian landrace called Geisha into the most valuable coffee on earth.

In the cup, Java behaves like its family. Tall plants, large beans, bronze leaf tips, low rust resistance, and a rating of "very good" cup potential when grown at high altitude — which in Panama it always is. Expect something floral and tea-like, lighter and more delicate than Pacamara, with a citrus thread running through it. If Geisha is the soprano, Java is the same voice at half the volume and a quarter of the price.

Panama's Java lots are genuinely scarce, and availability moves with the harvest. Mine comes from Don Pepe Estate, and you can always check what is currently in the Java collection.

Which should you try first?

How to brew them

All three are washed or lightly processed Panamanian coffees at high altitude, so the same principles apply — but the differences are worth respecting.

• Pacamara. The big beans are denser than they look. Grind one notch coarser than you would for a Catuai and give it slightly hotter water, around 95 C. It shines in a French press, where the body has room to show.
• Typica. Medium grind, 94 C, standard 1:16 ratio. It is forgiving and it does not reward fiddling. A simple V60 or a good drip machine is all it asks for.
• Java. Treat it like a Geisha — slightly coarser grind, water at 92 to 93 C, and a gentle pour. Too hot and the florals flatten out.

If grind size is the part you are unsure about, my coffee grind size chart covers every brew method, and the pour-over guide goes deeper on ratios. Processing changes the cup as much as variety does — see washed vs natural vs honey for why the same Typica can taste like two different coffees.

Frequently asked questions

What is Pacamara coffee?

Pacamara is a hybrid coffee variety created by the Salvadoran Institute for Coffee Research. It was crossed in 1958 from Pacas, a natural mutation of Bourbon, and Maragogipe, a mutation of Typica known for very large seeds, and was released to producers in the late 1980s. Pacamara produces unusually large oval beans and a dense, creamy cup with chocolate, butterscotch, citrus and stone fruit notes.

Is Pacamara better than Geisha?

They are different rather than better or worse. Geisha is floral, delicate and highly aromatic, while Pacamara is dense, sweet and structured with much more body. Pacamara typically costs around half as much as Panama Geisha and is more forgiving to brew, which makes it a better everyday coffee for most people.

Is Jamaica Blue Mountain the same variety as Typica?

Yes. Both Jamaica Blue Mountain and Hawaiian Kona are Typica selections. They are marketed under place names rather than variety names, which is a significant part of why they command premium prices. Typica grown in Panama at high altitude is the same variety at a much lower price.

Is Java coffee from the island of Java?

No. The Java variety is a selection from an Ethiopian landrace population called Abyssinia. The Dutch carried it from Ethiopia to the island of Java in the early 1800s and it kept the island name, but genetically it belongs to the Ethiopian landrace group, the same broad family as Geisha, rather than to the Typica or Bourbon lineages. Panama became the first Central American country to officially recognize the variety in 2016.

Why is Typica coffee so rare now?

Because it is difficult to farm profitably. Typica yields roughly 30 percent less than Bourbon and is highly susceptible to coffee leaf rust, so most producers across the Americas replaced it during the 20th century with hardier, higher-yielding varieties. The Typica still grown today is grown deliberately, for flavor rather than yield.

Which Panama coffee variety is the best value?

Pacamara and Typica are the best value. Both sit around $29 for 250 g, roughly half the price of a Panama Geisha grown in the same region at the same altitude. For anyone who wants estate-grade Panamanian coffee without paying the Geisha premium, they are the two to start with.

Do Pacamara, Typica and Java work for espresso?

Pacamara works very well for espresso because its body and sweetness hold up under pressure and through milk. Typica and Java are lighter and more delicate and are generally better suited to filter brewing such as pour-over or drip, although a lighter espresso recipe can work with both.

To go further: start with the main guide to Panama coffee varieties for Geisha, Catuai and Caturra, then read about how Boquete, Volcán and Renacimiento differ as growing regions and what Best of Panama actually measures. You can browse everything in the Arabica collection, or read what Panama Geisha is if you want to understand the variety these three live in the shadow of.