Chapter II

Varietals

Nearly every Arabica alive traces back to a few forests in Ethiopia and a few terraces in Yemen.

Start with

Landraces

Coffees as they grew before anyone bred them: Ethiopian and Yemeni forests and gardens.

Populations

Mixed plantings and seed lots sold under one name.

Selections

Single plants picked out of a field or a research station for their cup or their yield.

Mutations

A natural change in one plant, kept and propagated: Caturra is Bourbon gone short.

Crosses

Two varietals deliberately crossed.

F1 hybrids

First-generation crosses grown from clones or seed gardens, vigorous and uniform.

Introgressed (Timor Hybrid lines)

Arabicas carrying genes from Robusta through the Timor Hybrid, mostly for leaf-rust resistance.

Clones

Robusta and other species propagated from cuttings.

Uncertain lineage

Names in trade whose parentage nobody has pinned down.

Place positions: GeoNames, CC BY 4.0. Coastlines: Natural Earth (public domain).