How to Roast Laurina Bourbon: Is Laurina Bourbon a Decaf Coffee?

FrontStreet Coffee's Laurina Coffee Roasting Experience

How many people know the name Laurina? Those who do tend to be the most discerning coffee lovers and connoisseurs — Winston Churchill, Jacques Chirac, and the writer Honoré de Balzac were all devoted fans.

Laurina is one of the world's rarest and most expensive coffees. It grows exclusively on Réunion Island, a French overseas territory of 2,512 square kilometers that sits like a hidden speck on the world map between Madagascar and Mauritius — you would need a magnifying glass, or Google Maps, to find it. The Portuguese sighted it in 1513; France occupied it in 1643 and named it Bourbon Island after the royal family. It formally became a French colony in 1767 and regained the name Réunion only after the fall of the restored Bourbon dynasty following the 1848 revolution.

Today the island, dotted with geological wonders, is a hiker's paradise of volcanoes, cirques, waterfalls, black-sand beaches, and tropical forest, famed for its vanilla and rum. More than 40% of its area is listed as UNESCO World Heritage. It made world headlines more recently when debris from the missing Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370 washed ashore there after more than a year.

Réunion's first coffee trees arrived from the port of Mocha in Yemen in 1715 — just 40 trees, of which only two survived. From 1719 to 1723 the government imposed strict measures, legislating that every islander plant 200 Mocha coffee trees a year, with the death penalty for anyone who damaged one. The island was still called Bourbon at the time, so its coffee took the name naturally.

Laurina itself is a Réunion original. Regular Bourbon beans are short and round, but in 1810 a coffee farmer named Leroy found a dwarf plant in his garden with smaller, laurel-like leaves and thinner, sharper beans, yielding less than ordinary Bourbon. Botanists of the day confirmed it as a new variety and named it "Leroy" after its discoverer; because of its sharply pointed ends, it became commonly known as Laurina — literally "pointed Bourbon."

Beyond its looks, Laurina has a rare gift: it is naturally low in caffeine. Common Arabica carries about 1.2% caffeine; Laurina holds only 0.6% — roughly half — yet its aroma loses nothing for it, with abundant fruity notes.

In our first roasting batch we dropped the beans at a relatively hot 200°C. The roast revealed beans of high altitude, hard density, and higher moisture, so we moved to a profile of extended drying, gradually reduced heat, and a steady rise in temperature. We fine-tuned the heat at the yellowing point — once drying was complete and before first crack — to avoid scorching the surface, and we stretched development after first crack to 2 minutes 50 seconds, prolonging caramelization to tame excess fruit acidity and bring out a nuttier finish.

FrontStreet Coffee Recommendation

If Laurina's naturally low caffeine appeals to you, building a low-caffeine pour-over shelf is straightforward: skip Robusta entirely and stick to Arabica. Arabica grows at 800–2,200 meters in frost-free highlands, where greater day–night temperature swings slow the cherries' ripening and let flavor compounds accumulate for a more grounded aroma — and each region's microclimate layers on its own terroir. FrontStreet Coffee's washed Gedeb (Gotiti) cooperative lot from Yirgacheffe, the country's top G1 grade, is a lovely choice: classically washed and medium-light roasted, it shows elegant white florals with citrus, orange, and green-tea notes, suited to pour-over, drip bags, or cold brew.

For a fuller-bodied cup that still won't keep you up, the PWN Golden Mandheling from Indonesia — sorted three times by hand and machine to remove defects — brings herbal, spice, and wood notes with exceptional body and sweetness, great in a moka pot, as an espresso SOE, or as a latte. FrontStreet Coffee's Yunnan small-bean, medium roasted, offers nut, chocolate, and caramel with a gentle fruity acidity and a comfortable lingering sweetness. And Colombia's Huila, farmed above 1,800 meters, yields FrontStreet Coffee's washed Huila lot with black chocolate, cream, hazelnut, and toffee — sweet-tart, low in bitterness, and full of character.