Coffee: Key Arabica Varietals — Typica, Bourbon, Gesha, SL28

The term “varietal” in coffee refers to a botanical variety or cultivar within the Coffea arabica species — analogous to grape varietals in wine. While all Arabica coffee traces its genetic lineage to a relatively narrow wild gene pool from Ethiopia, centuries of cultivation, selection, and occasionally hybridization have produced dozens of distinct varietals with different yield profiles, disease resistance, altitude tolerances, and cup quality characteristics.

Arabica Varietal Comparison Table

Varietal	Origin	Altitude Range	Yield	Disease Resistance	Cup Quality	Notes
Typica	Ethiopia/Yemen	1,000–2,000 m	Low	Very low	Excellent	Genetic parent of most modern varietals
Bourbon	Réunion Island	1,000–2,000 m	Medium (+20–30% vs Typica)	Low	Excellent	Sweet, balanced; red and yellow variants
Gesha (Geisha)	Ethiopia (Gori Gesha)	1,500–2,100 m	Very low	Moderate	Exceptional	Floral/jasmine; Panama auction records
SL28	Kenya (Scott Labs)	1,500–2,100 m	Low-medium	Low-moderate	Excellent	Blackcurrant, berry, drought-tolerant
SL34	Kenya (Scott Labs)	1,200–2,000 m	Medium	Low	Very good	Similar to SL28; tolerates higher rainfall
Catimor	Portugal (CIFC)	800–1,600 m	High	Very high	Fair-good	Timor Hybrid × Caturra; rust resistant, harsh
Caturra	Brazil (mutation)	800–1,800 m	High	Low	Good	Compact dwarf; Bourbon mutation
Catuai	Brazil (IAPAR)	800–1,800 m	High	Low	Good	Caturra × Mundo Novo hybrid
Pacamara	El Salvador	1,200–1,800 m	Low	Low	Excellent	Large bean (screen 18–20); complex cup
Timor Hybrid	Timor (natural)	1,000–1,800 m	Medium	Very high	Fair	Natural Arabica × Robusta; rust-resistance donor

Typica: The Genetic Foundation

Typica is the earliest cultivated variety of Coffea arabica, traceable to Yemen where Arab traders first cultivated coffee plants from Ethiopian wild stock in the 15th–17th centuries. Dutch traders brought plants from Yemen to their Malabar (India) and Java plantations in the late 17th century; from Java, a specimen traveled to Amsterdam’s botanical garden, then to Martinique in 1720 via French naval officer Gabriel de Clieu, and eventually spread throughout Latin America. Most Arabica coffee grown in the Americas today is descended from a remarkably small founder population — producing the narrow genetic base that makes Arabica so vulnerable to novel pathogens.

In the cup, Typica is clean, sweet, and capable of great complexity, but its very low yield and extreme susceptibility to coffee leaf rust (Hemileia vastatrix) have driven most commercial growers to replace it with higher-yielding or disease-resistant alternatives.

Bourbon: Higher Yield, Sweet Profile

Bourbon is believed to have arisen as a spontaneous mutation of Typica on Réunion Island (formerly Bourbon Island) in the 18th century. It offers 20–30% higher yield compared to Typica — a meaningful economic advantage — while retaining excellent cup quality. Bourbon’s flavor profile is frequently described as sweet and balanced, with milk chocolate, stone fruit, and brown sugar notes. Both red and yellow Bourbon variants exist; yellow Bourbon matures to yellow rather than red at full ripeness, common in Brazil’s Catuaí-dominated production zones.

Gesha/Geisha: Auction Phenomenon

The Gesha variety (sometimes spelled Geisha in trade) originates from the Gori Gesha forest in Ethiopia’s Bench Maji zone, where wild specimens were collected in the 1930s–1950s. Seeds made their way through CATIE in Costa Rica to Panama, where the Peterson family at Hacienda La Esmeralda began isolating and showcasing the variety from the early 2000s onward. In 2004, their Gesha lot won the Best of Panama competition with an unprecedented SCA score, and the variety entered specialty coffee history.

Gesha’s cup profile — intensely floral, jasmine tea, bergamot, tropical fruit, tea-like — is unlike any other Arabica varietal. Its extreme rarity, very low yield, and demanding altitude requirements ($50–800/kg green at auction, with record lots exceeding $1,000/kg) have made it the emblem of ultra-premium specialty coffee.

SL28 and SL34: Kenya’s Scott Laboratories Heritage

SL28 and SL34 were developed by Scott Agricultural Laboratories in Nairobi during the 1930s, a colonial-era government research program aimed at selecting elite coffee trees from Kenyan and Tanganyikan farms. SL28 was selected from a single tree at the Loresho estate for its exceptional drought tolerance and cup quality. SL34 was sourced from French Mission (Bourbon) material, suited to higher-rainfall areas.

Both varietals produce Kenya’s signature cup profile — intense blackcurrant, berry, and tomato acidity, with extraordinary clarity and length — that makes Kenyan coffee among the most distinctive in the world. However, both varietals are highly susceptible to coffee leaf rust, driving Kenyan breeders toward Ruiru 11 and Batian (rust-resistant but less distinctive in the cup).

Catimor: Practicality Over Cup Quality

Catimor is a hybrid of the Timor Hybrid (a natural Coffea arabica × C. canephora cross discovered on Timor island around 1927) and Caturra, developed at the Coffee Rust Research Centre (CIFC) in Portugal in 1959. Because the Timor Hybrid carries functional resistance genes from Robusta, Catimor is highly resistant to all known races of Hemileia vastatrix — a critical advantage for smallholder farmers in rust-prone regions.

The trade-off is cup quality: Catimor is frequently described as harsh, astringent, or lacking sweetness, particularly at lower altitudes. At elevations above 1,500m with careful processing, quality improves significantly, and some Catimor-derived lines (Castillo in Colombia, Lempira in Honduras) have been shown to achieve reasonable cup scores.

Pacamara: El Salvador’s Large-Bean Specialty

Pacamara was created in El Salvador in 1958 by crossing Pacas (a Bourbon mutation) with Maragogipe (a Typica mutation known for very large beans). The result inherits the large seed size of Maragogipe — screen 18–20 — with improved productivity over the otherwise commercially unviable Maragogipe. Pacamara produces complex, nuanced cups with herbal, floral, and stone fruit notes, and has become a flagship of El Salvador’s specialty sector, regularly appearing at international barista competitions.