Reference · varieties and cultivars

Coffee varieties: arabica vs robusta and the cultivars on the bag

Many specialty bags name a variety: Typica, Bourbon, SL28, Gesha. Here is what those names mean: the two commercial species, a family tree of common arabica cultivars, a reference table with lineage, altitude and cup descriptions as breeders and reviewers give them, and what the line can and cannot tell you before you brew.

Updated 2026-11-10 · sources listed at the end · no product recommendations

Species first: arabica and robusta

Two species matter commercially. World Coffee Research (WCR), a nonprofit research program of the coffee industry whose variety catalog is the main reference here, covers only these two. USDA’s germplasm database (GRIN) lists the botanical names and native ranges below.

Trait	Arabica	Robusta
Botanical name	Coffea arabica L. (GRIN)	Coffea canephora Pierre ex A. Froehner; C. robusta is a synonym (GRIN)
Native range	Southwest Ethiopia, southeast Sudan, northeast Kenya (GRIN)	Central and western sub-Saharan Africa (WCR); GRIN lists countries from Liberia to Tanzania and Angola
Genetics	Tetraploid, 44 chromosomes; arose from a cross of C. canephora and C. eugenioides (Wikipedia)	Diploid, with Guinean and Congolese groups (WCR)
Pollination	Most established cultivars are “self-fertile and breed true from seed” (University of Hawaiʻi)	Self-incompatible: “a single robusta clone cannot successfully pollinate its own flowers” (WCR)
Genetic diversity	Narrow: a few trees taken out of Yemen are the basis of most production (WCR)	Much wider, and largely unexplored by breeders (WCR)
Where it grows	Usually about 1,200–1,500 m, with some farms from sea level up to 2,800 m (Wikipedia)	Wild populations at about 50–1,500 m; tolerates hotter, more humid, lower sites (WCR)
Caffeine	About 1.5% (Wikipedia)	About 2.7% (Wikipedia)
Cup, as described	Considered to produce the highest cup quality (WCR)	“Often lower in acidity and higher in bitterness” (WCR); “more woody and less fruity” (Wikipedia)
World crop, 2026/27 forecast	105.9 million 60-kg bags (USDA FAS)	83.8 million bags (USDA FAS)

By USDA’s July 2026 forecast of a record 189.7 million bags, robusta is about 44% of the world crop (our arithmetic). WCR says robusta’s share grew from 25% to 40% since the early 1990s, and that Vietnam, Brazil, Indonesia, Uganda, India and Côte d’Ivoire grow about 95% of it. Wikipedia notes that most robusta goes into instant coffee, while good robusta is used in traditional Italian espresso blends for body and crema.

How the arabica family tree branched

WCR traces arabica to the forests of Ethiopia, where its greatest genetic diversity remains. Seeds went to Yemen, and from there two lines spread worldwide. In 1670 seeds reached India; the Dutch took seed from India’s Malabar coast to Java in 1696 and 1699, and that line became Typica. A plant from Java reached Amsterdam in 1706, and its descendants seeded the Americas. The French planted seed on Bourbon Island (now Réunion) in 1708, 1715 and 1718, giving Bourbon, which reached Brazil in 1860. WCR calls this “a significant genetic bottleneck”.

Most later cultivars recombine those two lines. Caturra is a single-gene dwarf mutation of Bourbon found in Brazil between 1915 and 1918; Mundo Novo is a natural Typica × Bourbon cross discovered in 1943; and Brazil’s Instituto Agronômico (IAC) crossed Mundo Novo with Caturra in 1949 to make Catuai, released in 1972. Gesha took a separate route: an Ethiopian landrace collected in the 1930s that reached the CATIE research center in Costa Rica in 1953.

Robusta genes entered arabica through the Timor Hybrid, a natural cross found on East Timor in the 1920s that carries rust resistance. Crossed with Caturra it gave the Catimor group, and with Villa Sarchi the Sarchimor group. WCR stresses these are groups of many varieties, and that rust has been found on some resistant ones, such as Costa Rica 95 and Lempira.

Coffea arabica — native to southwest Ethiopia; itself a cross of C. canephora × C. eugenioides.
Ethiopian landraces — forest populations, linked with very high cup quality and lower yields (WCR).
Yemen — where a few trees became the base of most of the world’s arabica.
Gesha / Geisha — collected in Ethiopia in the 1930s; at CATIE from 1953.
Typica — the line taken via India to Java in 1696 and 1699.
Bourbon — the line planted on Réunion in 1708–1718.
SL34 — Kenyan selection; genetic tests link it to the Typica group (dashed).
Mundo Novo — natural Typica × Bourbon cross, found 1943.
Caturra — dwarf mutation of Bourbon, found 1915–1918.
SL28 — Kenyan selection of 1935; Bourbon-related by genetic tests (dashed).
Catuai — Mundo Novo × Caturra, crossed 1949.
Timor Hybrid — natural cross found in the 1920s that carries robusta genes.
Catimor — a group of varieties from Caturra × Timor Hybrid crosses.

Drawn by pourxlab after the WCR History of Arabica and the WCR catalog entries cited below; Wikipedia for the species’ hybrid origin. Solid lines: descent, mutation or cross; dashed: relationship from genetic tests. Simplified: many varieties left out.

Reference table: common arabica cultivars

Lineage, plant type and ratings come from the WCR catalog. Cup words are quoted only as the named source wrote them.

Variety	Lineage and origin	Plant	Optimal altitude (WCR)	Quality potential (WCR) and cup words
Typica	Yemeni seed via India to Java (1696, 1699); also called Criollo, Arábigo, Blue Mountain and others	Tall, low yield	High	Very good; “not particularly distinctive-tasting” (Coffee Review)
Bourbon	Yemen to Réunion in the early 1700s; Brazil around 1860	Tall, medium yield	High	Very good; “excellent quality in the cup at the highest altitudes” (WCR); “sweetly refined acidity” (Coffee Review)
Caturra	Single-gene dwarf mutation of Bourbon, Minas Gerais, Brazil, 1915–1918	Compact, “good yielding potential”	High	Good; “standard quality in Central America” (WCR)
Mundo Novo	Natural Typica × Bourbon cross, São Paulo, found 1943	Tall, “vigorous and productive”	High	Good; “good quality cup” (WCR)
Catuai	Mundo Novo × Caturra, IAC Brazil, crossed 1949, released 1972	Compact, very high yield	High	Good; “good but not great” (WCR)
SL28	Single tree from the Tanganyika Drought Resistant population, selected 1935 by Scott Agricultural Laboratories, Kenya	Tall, low yield, drought tolerant	Medium to high	Exceptional; summary: “very good cup quality potential” (WCR)
SL34	Single tree on Loresho Estate, Kabete, Kenya, late 1930s; Typica-related by genetic tests	Tall, medium yield	Medium to high	Exceptional; “exceptional cup quality” (WCR)
Pacamara	Pacas × Maragogipe, Salvadoran coffee institute ISIC; not uniform or stable	Compact, low yield, very large beans	High	Exceptional; “deep, savory-sweet character” (Coffee Review)
Gesha / Geisha (Panama)	Ethiopian landrace; CATIE accession T2722 (1953); spread in Panama in the 1960s	Tall, low yield	High	Exceptional; “delicate floral, jasmine, and peach-like aromas” (WCR)

WCR rates all nine as susceptible to coffee leaf rust except Gesha, which it lists with intermediate resistance. Its catalog warns that resistance can change as the fungus evolves.

What “high” altitude means in the catalog

WCR’s altitude ratings depend on distance from the equator. These are the bands printed in its catalog entries (feet are our conversion):

Latitude	Low	Medium	High
0–5° N or S	1,000–1,200 m	1,200–1,600 m	above 1,600 m (5,250 ft)
5–15° N or S	700–900 m	900–1,300 m	above 1,300 m (4,265 ft)
Beyond 15°	400–700 m	700–1,000 m	above 1,000 m (3,280 ft)

“Medium to high” for SL28 and SL34 means above 1,200, 900 or 700 m in the same three bands.

Varieties grown in the United States

Hawaiʻi is the main US example. A 2008 University of Hawaiʻi guide calls Guatemalan, “an early 19th century Central American land race” of Typica also known as Kona typica, “the recommended variety for Kona”, and names Yellow Catuai the most widely planted cultivar on Kauaʻi. A 2025 extension publication lists Kona Typica, Bourbon, Mundo Novo, Catuai and Caturra among the state’s more common varieties, all susceptible to coffee leaf rust, and notes that robusta and C. liberica are used there mainly as rootstocks against the Kona coffee root-knot nematode.

Where the sources disagree

Robusta’s share. About 40% (WCR), about 44% of the 2026/27 forecast (USDA FAS, our arithmetic), 45–46% (Wikipedia).
SL28’s parentage. Coffee Review (2011) calls it a “Bourbon-derived hybrid”; WCR describes a single-tree selection from a drought-resistant population with a Bourbon-like background.
SL34 and “French Mission”. The tree was labeled French Mission, a name often equated with Bourbon, but WCR says genetic tests link SL34 to the Typica group.
Gesha’s breakthrough. WCR dates it to the 2005 Best of Panama competition; Coffee Review and Wikipedia say a Panama farm first drew attention with it in 2004.
Spelling. Wikipedia traces “Gesha” to the Gori Gesha forest of southwest Ethiopia, where seeds were collected in 1936; WCR notes the germplasm records first wrote “Geisha”, and that the name is also used for coffees without its distinct genetics.

What the variety line tells a brewer

A variety is a genetic potential, not a flavor guarantee. Coffee Review’s Kenneth Davids writes that “most varieties of Arabica taste similar enough” that identifying them by taste alone is difficult, that differences vary by crop year, farm and tree age, and that dried-in-the-fruit processing can blur varietal character while washed coffee lets it “display more clearly.” WCR’s ratings are likewise quality potential at high altitude. None of the sources above gives brew settings by variety.

Read the variety together with altitude, process and roast level; each changes the cup.
Robusta or canephora in a blend means more caffeine per gram: see caffeine by brew method.
Gesha and Geisha are the same name; it is named in most winning coffees in the World Brewers Cup archive.
Brew a new variety at your usual ratio and adjust with the taste troubleshooting chart.
To taste a variety’s character, cup two washed coffees of different varieties side by side.
Write the variety in your brew log so you can compare bags over time.