Variety Guide: Laurina

Laurina is one of the rarest and most fascinating varieties in specialty coffee. It produces significantly less caffeine than standard arabica - not through any processing or intervention, but simply because of its genetics. It's also notoriously difficult to grow, produced in small quantities, and offers a flavour profile unlike almost anything else in coffee.

What is Laurina coffee?

Laurina is a variety of Coffea arabica - the species that accounts for the vast majority of the world's specialty coffee. What makes it unusual is that it naturally produces significantly less caffeine than other arabica varieties, without any intervention or processing. It is not decaffeinated. The caffeine level is simply lower to begin with, encoded in its genetics.

It is also known as Bourbon Pointu - "pointed bourbon" in French - a name that refers both to its origin as a mutation of the Bourbon arabica variety and to the distinctive pointed shape of its beans. Where most arabica beans are rounded and oval, Laurina beans are small, elongated and pointed - a physical characteristic that makes them immediately recognisable.

The history - from Réunion Island to the world

Coffea arabica originated in Ethiopia, where it grew wild in the highland forests. From there, it was cultivated in Yemen, where coffee drinking developed as a widespread practice from around the 15th century. It was from Yemen that arabica coffee spread to the rest of the world - carried by traders, colonisers and missionaries across centuries of global commerce.

One of the earliest and most consequential stops in that journey was Réunion Island -then known as Île Bourbon - in the Indian Ocean. In 1715, the French transported ancestral Arabica coffee plants from Yemen to the island. Over the decades, these crops adapted to the local terroir, evolving into the distinct cultivar we now know as the Bourbon variety. It was among these island-grown trees, roughly a century later, that a genetic mutation manifested: trees began producing small, pointed beans with a noticeably different, low-caffeine character. This was Laurina.

The variety takes its scientific name from the Latin for laurel - the same plant family that gives us the everyday bay leaf - referencing the narrow, pointed foliage that mirrors the distinctive shape of the beans. Despite this unique trait, Laurina remained largely confined to Réunion for generations, occasionally attracting the curiosity of botanists but never making a commercial impact. As the island's coffee industry eventually collapsed, Laurina quietly faded into obscurity alongside it. It was not until the modern specialty coffee era that Laurina began to attract serious attention from producers and roasters - initially for its low caffeine content, and increasingly for the quality of what it produced in the cup when grown and processed with care.

Why is Laurina naturally low in caffeine?

Coffee plants evolved caffeine as a natural chemical defence mechanism to deter insects and pests. Standard arabica typically contains 1.2 - 1.4% caffeine by weight. Laurina contains significantly less - typically in the range of 0.4 - 0.6%, due to a recessive genetic mutation that affects the plant's caffeine biosynthesis pathway. The mutation appears to reduce activity in the caffeine biosynthesis pathway, meaning the plant produces less caffeine in the first place.

This has a practical consequence: because Laurina produces less of its own natural pest deterrent, it is more vulnerable to insects and disease. This is one of the reasons it is harder to grow than standard arabica varieties - and one of the reasons it remains rare.

Across the five Laurina coffees we have sourced and roasted, caffeine levels have ranged from 0.45% to 0.55% in the raw green coffee. This is a reduction of around 60% compared to Arabica’s typical 1.3% caffeine content. To put that in context, a standard arabica coffee brewed as a filter typically delivers approximately 200mg of caffeine. A Laurina brewed to the same recipe would deliver roughly 80mg.

Growing Laurina - rarity, challenges and physical characteristics

Laurina's low caffeine content is inseparable from its agronomic challenges. The same genetic mutation that reduces caffeine also reduces the plant's natural defences, making it more susceptible to pests. Combined with its low yield - Laurina trees produce significantly less fruit than standard arabica varieties - this makes it expensive and labour-intensive to cultivate commercially.

The physical characteristics of the plant reflect its unusual genetics. The trees are compact, with narrow leaves. The beans themselves are small and distinctly pointed - quite unlike the rounded beans of most arabica varieties. This unusual shape also presents challenges at the roasting stage, requiring careful attention to achieve even development.

Perhaps no producer illustrates the difficulty of growing Laurina better than Daterra, in Brazil's Cerrado region. Daterra began studying Laurina 14 years before releasing it commercially, sourcing initial seeds from the Agronomic Institute of Campinas and the Illy University of Coffee Research Centre. Their aim was to understand whether Laurina could thrive in the Cerrado's dry, warm climate while maintaining its low-caffeine genetics and sensory potential.

The process was not straightforward. Across more than a decade of trials, Daterra planted, observed, re-selected and replanted different lineages. They lost 200 hectares of Laurina in the process - trees that failed outright or produced fruit without the intended quality. Persistence paid off. Laurina is now an established part of their offering, and in 2018, a Daterra Laurina was used by Emi Fukahori to win the World Brewers Cup - challenging long-held assumptions about Brazilian coffee and placing Laurina on the global specialty map.

How Laurina tastes - and how origin and process shape the cup

Laurina has a reputation for being delicate cup, with a lighter body, high sweetness, and floral and fruity flavour notes. But across the different Laurina coffees we have sourced from four different countries, what has become clear is how significantly processing, origin and elevation can shape the final cup.

Guatemala - Nueva Granada, washed
Our first Laurina came from the volcanic slopes of San Marcos in Guatemala, grown between the Tajumulco and Tacana volcanoes at 1,200-1,600 metres. A traditional washed process produced a clean, transparent cup - delicate and light-bodied, with citrus, grape and soft chocolate notes. This showed the nature of laurina with traditional processing.

Panama - Finca Bonita Springs, natural
Our next Laurina was from the Alto Lino region of Boquete, and grown at 1,370-1,400 metres, this Laurina from the Miró family showed what natural processing brings to the variety. The cup was still soft and mellow, but with more sweetness and rounder body, we noted apricot, honey and caramel flavour notes. Here the natural processing amplified the inherent sweetness of the variety.

Colombia - Edinson Argote, washed + thermal shock
At 1,850 metres in Huila, this is the highest-grown Laurina we have stocked, and the most experimentally processed. Edinson Argote's thermal-shock washed process - involving oxidation, controlled yeast fermentation and a cold 5°C rinse to seal the fermentation - produced our brightest Laurina to date. Tropical and fruit-forward, with a clarity and intensity that set it apart from the other washed examples. The caffeine level was also the lowest we have tested at 0.45%.

Brazil - Daterra TB13, natural + cryo fermentation
Daterra are possibly the largest producer of laurina, and masters of the variety so we were excited to get this micro lot laurina from them. Again this was a more experimental process, the coffee was fermented at around 5°C for 150 hours before drying. The result was a complex coffee with blueberry aroma, citrus in the cup and a sparkling acidity. The low temperature fermentation added unusual elements to the cup without overwhelming the variety's inherent delicacy.

What this tells us about the variety
Across all the coffees, certain characteristics remained consistent: a lighter body than most arabicas, restrained bitterness, and a tendency toward fruit and floral notes rather than chocolate or nut. What changes significantly is the intensity and type of fruit - washed Laurinas tend toward citrus and grape, while naturals lean toward stone fruit and honey. Advanced fermentation adds complexity but at its best preserves the variety's inherent delicacy.

How to find and buy Laurina coffee

Laurina is rare enough that most coffee shops and roasters will never stock it. When you do find it, a few things are worth looking for.

First, visually check the coffee. Laurina has an unmistakeable small pointy bean – if it doesn’t have this shape, it’s not laurina.

Secondly, enquire about the caffeine content. "Low caffeine" is not a regulated claim, and caffeine levels can vary between individual lots even within the same variety. Look for roasters who independently lab test their coffees and publish verified figures.

Its worth paying close attention to process. As the coffees above demonstrate, a traditionally washed Laurina and a natural Laurina can taste quite different. If you are new to the variety, a washed or honey-processed example is often a good starting point - the clarity makes it easier to understand what Laurina tastes like before exploring the more complex fermented versions.

Finally, expect to pay a premium. Low yields, challenging agronomy and careful processing all contribute to a higher cost than most specialty coffees. The Laurina lots at Daterra's 2025 Masterpieces auction sold for £70–£170 per kilogram – for the unroasted coffee! We try to keep our Laurina coffees at an accessible price point, but they are never cheap - and the price reflects the reality of what it takes to grow them.

Our Low Caf Rarities subscription is built exclusively around Laurina - rotating through different origins and processes, with independently lab-tested caffeine figures for every coffee. If you'd like to explore the full range of naturally low-caffeine coffees, including Laurina, Aramosa and Excelsa, you can browse our Low Caf collection here.

References

M-Cultivo Coffee (2025) Daterra | Unlocking the Flavor of Laurina. The Cupping Table podcast, 11 November. (Accessed: 17 November 2025).

Baumann, T.W., Sondahl, M.R., Mösli Waldhauser, S.S. and Kretschmar, J.A. (1998) ‘Non-destructive analysis of natural variability in bean caffeine content of Laurina coffee’, Phytochemistry, 49(6), pp. 1569–1573.