Bourbon

One of the two foundational cultivars of cultivated coffee, Bourbon mutated from Typica stock on the Île Bourbon (now Réunion) before spreading across Latin America and East Africa. It is prized for sweetness and balance — caramel, soft red fruit, a rounded acidity — and for being remarkably generous genetically: Caturra, Catuaí, Pacas and more all descend from it. Lower yielding and less disease-resistant than its modern children, but a benchmark for flavour.