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A varietal family tree

This is something that I’ve been thinking about for a while, but hadn’t gotten anywhere with. Tonight I was flicking through the Illy book looking for something else and then starting reading the varietals page and thought I’d try something simple to see how it looked. It is pretty badly labeled at this point - not distinguishing natural mutations from selections, and only crosses are obvious. I have only done c. arabica varietals that are quite well known, and thrown in a couple of obscure ones if they are on the route to somewhere interesting. Click the link for bigness.

Comments are very welcome, though if it is a correction please list your source. Additions also welcome. A few obvious ones are missing, but I wasn’t sure of their heritage and couldn’t find an accurate source - again, please chip in….

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10 comments for “A varietal family tree”

  1. I’m going to have to invest in the illy book really arn’t I.

    Cheers again Jim.

    Loving the SMCR holding page by the way!

    Posted by mentness/stuartlee | August 20, 2007, 10:47 pm
  2. Jim - that chart is a godsend. I needed a place to start figuring this out myself and you’ve done most the work already!

    Posted by Grendel | August 21, 2007, 1:51 am
  3. I’ve really been wanting this as well. I’m stoked to see the final product.

    Posted by Daniel | August 21, 2007, 8:21 am
  4. Interesting, James. Been wondering about putting one together here and remember you mentioned this a few months back…let me know if we can assist.

    Posted by Grant | August 21, 2007, 9:23 am
  5. i have a pretty extensive breakdown in digital format from Anacafe, I’ll try to find it and send it to you. It includes timelines, methods of transport and some records of who was responsible for the geographical move or creation of new varietal.

    Posted by edwin | August 21, 2007, 7:03 pm
  6. edwin - that would be amazing!

    Posted by jim | August 21, 2007, 7:17 pm
  7. Hi James

    First glance looks pretty good - I think you can add Icatu off of the Bourbon spur. I will ask Gabriel about Acaia and Canario. We recently cupped another ”new” one from Brazil called Ruby - not impressed enough on that table to go forward but icatu, canario and acaia have all found their followings and I think they all have the potential to be the next ‘recognised’ varietal purchase after bourbon.

    Bring me another glass of shiraz (syrah) he cried!!

    good job - you should write a book.

    all the best
    slh

    Posted by Stephen | August 22, 2007, 2:25 pm
  8. James - saw ur post on coffeed.com as well ref this, good article (and some more food for thought as it goes down to accession level) available in full at:

    http://www.scielo.br/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=S1516-89132005000500002#tab1

    Posted by ubo | August 22, 2007, 9:12 pm
  9. […] not yet another lost book of the Bible. It’s James Hoffman’s budding effort to map coffee’s family tree. Have a look and see if you can figure out where your cup comes […]

    Posted by Bloggle » Coffee Geneology — A Varietal Family Tree | August 22, 2007, 10:43 pm
  10. james, i haven’t been able to dig this up but will keep looking. keep an eye out for article in roastmagazine nov/dec on this.

    Posted by edwin | September 25, 2007, 6:19 pm

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