Similar to Dogshot's original post, I'm looking for a website that details the main coffee varietals that are out there. Sort of a Coffee Varietal 101.

SlowRain wrote:Similar to Dogshot's original post, I'm looking for a website that details the main coffee varietals that are out there. Sort of a Coffee Varietal 101.

Here you go (from the Coffee Quality Institute website): http://www.coffeeresearch.org/agriculture/varietals.htm.

Thank you very much.

Thanks for resurrecting this (excellent) thread.

Here is a link to a document I wrote recently on the subject, still in editing mode- we'll be publishing an official document soon...

http://docs.google.com/Doc?id=dgbj78cm_165fqn73jd7

Peter G

Wow.

Peter... it looks like you've taken on a serious task here! And even in its unfinished state, I think this is a really valuable document.

thank you.

Thanks Peter; it's superb, especially the section describing coffees in Ethiopia.

As a reference, this is better than the chapter in Illy; so I hope you leave it up permanently.

(Really niggling addition -- the famous Saint Helena coffee tastes like a Sidamo or Yrg. Perhaps the varietal is something taken direct from SW Ethiopia)

Nice.

I wrote a little blurb about the bean 3 years ago (feels like a lifetime) where I hit a little on the migration of the bean but mostly on the processing.

The Miracle of the Bean

Peter, great write-up you have there. some additonal info on some of the varietals there. Mokka the varietal we have here and that is also at research stations around the world did not likely come directly from yemen. this seems to be a documented mutation of typica that was known atleast 100 years ago. does seem to be similar to some forms of coffee from yemen though. in addition to the version of it growing in Maui there are also short and tall versions of it. it was brought to Hawaii from research station in Brazil. cup quality does seem to be good on it. but not sure if its distinct enough to make it worthwhile planting anywhere where hand picking is employed. really a pain to pick. that said i'm drowing a couple dozen plants to play with in a few years.

as far as bourbon, much i have read recently seems to indicate the french got some seeds directly from yemen that they planted on Reunion. while maybe they orginally brought some typica there it seems more likely that bourbon was a separate varietal brought from elsewhere. in over 150 years of documented mutations of all sorts never has to my knowledge a bourbon sprouted from a typica plant. we see giant beans, tiny beans, dwarf plants, skinny leaves, erect branching, purple leaves, yellow fruit but not green tipped plants with different fruit clustering and broader leaves with rounder beans spontaneously popping out of typica fields. genetically it seems to always show distinction from typica. as for the yellow and orange fruited varieties, from what i can find in research papers it would seem yellow bourbon is actually a hybrid of yellow fruited mutant of typica dicsovered in brazil called 'amerelo de botucatu and bourbon' i haven't seen nearly as many coffee trees as you but i haven't yet noticed a yellow fruited mutant of bourbon in a feild of red bourbon but i have twice seen a yellow fruited mutant of typica. have you ever come across this?

as for laurina. while again we dont know the exact history of coffee in reunion it seems that this is a different cultivar than bourbon and typica, not just a mutation. its different on almost every level morphologically. hardly even looks like a coffee plant from the ones i've seen. it is also still grown on the island of new Caledonia. and likely still growing in the forest on some islands in the carribbean. i havent yet tasted coffee from this varietal but should get the chance this fall from some at a research station in Oahu. the geneticist there worked with UCC on the stuff being grown in Reunion now so i'm hoping she can help me acquire a sample of that coffee as well. will hopefully be able to validate its reported good cup quality.

the st helena case is interesting. are they still growing coffee there? my hunch is that several varietals were planted on the island of reunion and at least a couple distinct ones were distributed around french colonies. would be interesting to see good pictures of the trees there and see if they actually appear to be bourbon or typica or something else altogether perhaps. i sincerely doubt coffee in st helena was taken directly from Ethiopia. i'm havent read up on the history of st helena but don't know why someone a long while ago would have been even interested in untested ethiopian cultivars and then actually travel there to get it when plant material was already available. but the possibility of it being something different than typica or bourbon could be possible.

I will be in New Caledonia next year and will see if I can get photos, information and with luck samples.