Coffee comes in hundreds of varieties, and each brings its own character to the cup. Some, like Typica and Bourbon, are the ancestors of most coffee grown today. Others, like Gesha, were rediscovered and became legends. Many of Ethiopia's best coffees come from local landraces that have never been formally catalogued.
Cultivar, variety or varietal? You'll often see coffees described by "variety", and sometimes "varietal". We use cultivar, short for "cultivated variety": a plant selected and maintained by people for particular traits, which is what Gesha, SL28 or Caturra are. In botany, "variety" is a formal rank for naturally occurring forms within a species, so it's less precise for plants shaped by growers. "Varietal" is an adjective, meaning "relating to a variety", as in "varietal character". Calling a coffee "a Gesha varietal" uses it as a noun, a habit borrowed from wine, so we say "a Gesha cultivar" instead. Many Ethiopian coffees come from local landraces, populations that evolved on farms rather than being formally selected, and we name them that way where we can.
Below are guides to the cultivars we roast most often: where they come from, how they taste, and any examples we're currently roasting.
