Coffee Bean Varieties and Characteristics - Is Laurina Coffee Delicious? Get to Know This "Top Student" Among Coffees

Coffee Bean Varieties and Characteristics—Is Laurina Coffee Delicious? Meet the "Honor Student" Among Coffees

To understand Laurina, you first have to understand its parent line: Bourbon, one of Arabica's two great ancient varieties. In the 17th century, the French smuggled 60 coffee seedlings from Yemen to Bourbon Island (today's Réunion) for cultivation. Only two survived—and those two became the original "Round Bourbon" that was first spread to the world.

The Laurina Story: A Natural Decaf from Bourbon Island

In the early 18th century, a mutant of Round Bourbon was discovered on Bourbon Island. Its plants and leaves were smaller, its beans more pointed and slender, and—most remarkably—its caffeine content far lower. It was hailed as a semi-decaffeinated coffee and named "Laurina" (also called Pointed Bourbon). Because it is so difficult to cultivate, Laurina has become the most expensive coffee variety in the world. In the cup, that naturally low caffeine shows up as a remarkably sweet, delicate brew with none of the bitterness that caffeine contributes to ordinary coffee—widely considered a "top student" among coffee varieties.

How Bourbon Conquered the New World and East Africa

In the mid-to-late 18th century, Brazil introduced Bourbon and hybridized it with Red Top Typica to boost the seedlings' disease resistance, and the Bourbon variety took root and flourished across South America. After the 19th century, French missionaries carried coffee seeds from Bourbon Island to Kenya, Tanzania, Rwanda, and beyond—so on the East African lands outside Ethiopia, Bourbon was bred and propagated once again.

Over several hundred years of cultivation in the New World's varied soils and climates, the two ancient varieties Typica and Bourbon gradually evolved into numerous variants and hybrids, conventionally grouped into four major categories: the Typica variant series, the Bourbon variant series, the intraspecific hybrid series within Arabica, and the interspecific hybrid series crossing Arabica with Robusta and Liberica.

The Bourbon Family Tree

Bourbon coffee fruits carry a distinct sour-fragrant aroma, with milky and incense cedar notes more noticeable than Typica's, and a broader flavor spectrum overall. Its variants span the globe: "Caturra," discovered in Brazil, is a Bourbon variant that excels at high altitudes—the higher the altitude, the lower the yield, but the better the flavor. "Pacas" is a dwarf Bourbon variant found in El Salvador that doesn't demand lofty elevations, growing well at 600-1,000 meters with excellent flavor. Villa Sarchi and Villa Lobos also belong to the dwarf Bourbon group, and Yemen Mocha coffee—with its short trees and small, exquisite beans—is itself a Bourbon variant.

Knowledge Point: Sun Coffee

Caturra's strong adaptability means it needs no shade trees—it thrives in direct, scorching sun, earning it the nickname "Sun Coffee." It tolerates high-density cultivation, but demands heavier fertilization, which raises costs; that trade-off explains why coffee farmers were slow to accept it in its early years.

FrontStreet Coffee Recommendation

Bourbon's story is written nowhere more clearly than in Brazil, the world's largest coffee producer. Brazilian coffee is known for moderate acidity and an excellent balance of sweetness, bitterness, and body, which makes it ideal for medium roasting—the roast brings out nutty aromatics and a mellow, slightly acidic cup suited to both single-origin brewing and blends.

FrontStreet Coffee's Cerrado Red Bourbon is the classic entry point: grown in the renowned Cerrado region, this pulped-natural lot shows creamy peanut, toast, caramel, and hazelnut at a medium roast, with a round, non-acidic mouthfeel and a whisper of bitterness—just as good in a moka pot, siphon, or French press as it is as a pour-over. For something rarer, the Queen Estate (Fazenda Rainha) Yellow Bourbon from Mogiana—a mutation of Red Bourbon—offers a cleaner fruit character with sugarcane sweetness, fruit, and chocolate notes. FrontStreet Coffee's espresso blends, including the classic and premium blends and FrontStreet Coffee's Black Cocoa Blend, also lean on Brazilian beans for their chocolate and cream aromatics and their gentle, extraction-friendly balance.