Back in the fall of 2017, we released a special variety separation from our producer partners at Daterra in Brazil called laurina. This rare variety was much beloved during its short tenure on our menu some seven years ago, so we are excited to once again be featuring it as part of our Education Lot menu with the present release. The distinct morphology of the laurina plant is eye-catching when situated among more ubiquitous coffee varieties, as it is at Daterra. Short, squat, and with a shape similar to a Christmas tree, the small leaves and internodal distances are a clear indicator of the unique plant genetics at play. Laurina, also sometimes called bourbon-pointu, is a naturally occurring mutation of the bourbon variety. The variety was discovered on the island of Bourbon (present-day Réunion Island), from which the parent bourbon variety got its name. Another notable quality of the laurina variety is its considerably lower caffeine content compared to other arabica varieties. Laurina is just one of many varieties being grown and researched at Daterra’s vast estate in Brazil.

Encompassing a staggering 6,405 hectares (~16,000 acres) of tropical savannah in Brazil’s Cerrado region, Daterra produces coffee on a dramatically different scale than every other farm that Passenger currently purchases from. While the Daterra project was originally founded by Luis Pascoal in 1973, coffee production did not begin in earnest until 1983. In the years since, broad expansion of the company’s coffee operations has been a key area of focus in pursuit of its triple bottom line: “People, Planet, Profit”. Consistently lauded as the most sustainable farm in Brazil, Daterra holds the country’s first Rainforest Alliance certification, is a certified B Corp, and is an important contributor to ongoing coffee genetics research in Brazil.

Given Daterra’s size, its status as a negative emissions agribusiness (i.e. a business that absorbs more CO2 than it emits) is all the more inspiring. More than half of the farm is reserved exclusively for natural preservation and 300 hectares of land have been intentionally reforested in recent years. The team has planted over 600,000 native trees in Cerrado since the beginning of the project, and in 2021 they announced an ambitious commitment to increasing their carbon sequestration a further 50% by 2030, with the planting of 20 million additional trees. In our most recent visit to Daterra, they were nearing completion of a solar farm that they hope to eventually grow to use as the sole energy source for operations at Daterra.

The fact that laurina has a lower caffeine content and is a fairly delicate plant has not made it a historically popular candidate to meet the demands of producers or consumers. Nonetheless, its unique genetics may provide valuable information for ongoing research, and it’s flavor profile is one that we feel is as special and worth celebrating as the variety itself.