What is Coffea eugenioides?

Coffea eugenioides is a wild coffee species native to the highland forests of East Africa - Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, Rwanda and the Democratic Republic of Congo. It's one of the two parent species of Arabica: hundreds of thousands of years ago, a natural cross between eugenioides and Coffea canephora (Robusta) produced the tetraploid hybrid we now know as Coffea arabica. Eugenioides itself is diploid, carrying two sets of chromosomes rather than Arabica's four.

The plant is a small, delicate tree with small leaves, small cherries and small beans. Yields are very low, and for most of coffee's history it was treated as a botanical curiosity rather than a crop. That changed when Inmaculada Coffee Farms in Pichindé, near Cali in Colombia, began cultivating it commercially at around 1,700-2,000 metres. It reached the world stage in 2021, when several World Barista Championship finalists - including champion Diego Campos - used it in their routines.

In the cup, Eugenioides is unlike Arabica. Caffeine is reported at around 0.5% by dry weight - roughly a third to half that of Arabica - so there's very little bitterness. Acidity is low and sweetness is intense, with tasting notes that read more like confectionery than coffee: marshmallow, sugar cane, cereal milk. It divides opinion, and volumes are tiny, so lots are scarce and sit among the most expensive green coffee on the market. Beyond the cup, it's of real interest to breeders as a source of low-caffeine traits and climate resilience - as a parent species of Arabica, it's a natural place to look.