How did the Laurina coffee tree return from near extinction?
Bourbon Pointu, also called Laurina, is a rare coffee variety with elongated, pointed beans discovered on Bourbon Island in 1810. Its caffeine content is roughly half that of regular Bourbon. After hurricanes, fire ants, and leaf rust cut production, it vanished from Réunion Island after 1942 and was widely considered extinct. Japanese UCC expert Yoshio Kawashima found more than thirty surviving plants in 2001.
Revival work followed between French scientists and UCC, and the first small harvest came only in 2006. The coffee tree is weak and low-yielding, so most plants are grown in laboratory settings. The article traces the variety's naming, its 18th and 19th century peak of 4,000 metric tons a year, its flavor profile, its high price, and Front Street Coffee's interpretation of the lot.
Bourbon Pointu is a rare coffee variety with elongated beans that taper at both ends. It was discovered on the island of Bourbon in 1810. Its caffeine content is only half that of regular Bourbon, making it a naturally low-caffeine coffee. It was widely cultivated in the 18th and 19th centuries, with annual production once reaching 4,000 metric tons. However, disasters such as hurricanes, fire ants, and leaf rust followed one after another, and after 1942 it completely disappeared from Réunion Island, and the coffee world considered it extinct. It was not until Japanese UCC coffee expert Yoshio Kawashima spent years searching and discovered more than thirty surviving plants in the wild on Bourbon Island in 2001 that French scientists and UCC subsequently collaborated on revival efforts. Only in 2006 was the first small harvest of beans obtained. This article introduces the origin of the name Bourbon Pointu, its historical rise and fall, flavor characteristics, and expensive price, as well as Front Street Coffee's recommendation and interpretation of this legendary variety.
Bourbon Coffee — Bourbon Pointu
Bourbon Pointu: discovered on Bourbon Island in 1810, its beans changed from round to pointed, and its caffeine content is only half that of regular coffee; however, its yield is scarce and the tree vigor is rather weak, making it extremely precious, and in most cases it can only be cultivated in laboratories.
Bourbon Pointu has two other aliases, Laurina and Leroy, but neither is nearly as well known as Bourbon Pointu. It got its name because the beans are long and narrow with pointed ends; the original Bourbon variety (also called round Bourbon by some) has shorter beans with a roughly oval outline.
With its outstanding flavor and lower caffeine content, Bourbon Pointu won people's favor as early as the 18th century. French King Louis XV, novelist Balzac, and other notable figures were once loyal fans. During the two hundred years from the 18th to the 19th century, Bourbon Pointu was cultivated on a large scale on Bourbon Island, and in 1800 it set a peak record with an annual output of 4,000 metric tons. However, after that, disasters such as hurricanes, fire ants, and leaf rust struck one after another, and the scale of cultivation continued to shrink. Finally, in 1942, the last batch shipped back to France amounted to only two hundred kilograms of Bourbon Pointu. From then on, Bourbon Pointu vanished completely, and even official documents no longer mentioned it. After the 1950s, no one on Réunion Island cultivated coffee anymore, and the island's agriculture shifted entirely to crops such as sugarcane. Coffee had no further connection with Réunion Island, and Bourbon Pointu was recognized by the coffee world as "already extinct."
This bean remained hidden for half a century and only reappeared 8 years ago. This has made Bourbon Pointu from its place of origin, La Reunion Island, sell for more than 500 yuan per 100 grams on the international market. After that, Colombia also began cultivating this variety, and only Camilo Merizalde, the source of beans for multiple WBC champions, dared to take on the transplanting. Therefore, this coffee bean, with a global annual output of only a few tons, naturally commands a high price.
Bourbon Pointu coffee beans are a natural low-caffeine variety, academically called "Coffea Laurina," commonly known as Bourbon Pointu, and named precisely because its beans are relatively long and narrow with slightly pointed ends.
Unlike low-caffeine coffee produced through artificial processing, Bourbon Pointu has lower caffeine content than ordinary Bourbon coffee trees because of genetic degeneration, and its flavor is even better. However, its yield is extremely low, which also makes Bourbon Pointu rarer and more expensive.
Decades after Bourbon Pointu disappeared, Yoshio Kawashima, a coffee expert at Japan's UCC, repeatedly heard coffee farmers in El Salvador mention that "low-caffeine coffee trees may still survive on French Bourbon Island," which planted the idea of searching for Bourbon Pointu.
In 1999, he had the opportunity to travel to Africa for an inspection and took the chance to visit Bourbon Island to look for the legendary low-caffeine coffee trees. However, things did not go as smoothly as imagined. Young people on the island had never heard that Bourbon Island once had coffee crops, so before leaving he had no choice but to leave his contact address with local farmers and officials.
Finally, two years later, in 2001, Kawashima received a phone call from a farmer on Bourbon Island saying that more than thirty unknown coffee trees had been found in the wild! Later, expert identification confirmed that they were indeed the Bourbon Pointu coffee trees from back then. So French scientists and Japan's UCC joined hands to launch a revival plan for the natural low-caffeine coffee trees, and in 2006 harvested the first small batch of Bourbon Pointu coffee beans. After screening, they went on sale in 2007, but were mainly supplied to the Japanese market at a high price, costing as much as NT$20.8 per gram, four times more expensive than top Blue Mountain!
Flavor description in the archives: bright acidity, notes of blueberry and vanilla, velvety smoothness
Front Street Coffee suggests that if you have the chance to try this naturally low-caffeine Bourbon Pointu, you might present it with a light-medium roast to better appreciate its signature bright fruit acidity and blueberry, vanilla aftertaste.
The above content is compiled by CoffeeHunters, a coffee news website.
