Charrier Coffee

Charrier coffee, (Coffea charrieriana), species of coffee plant (genus Coffea, family Rubiaceae) found in Central Africa that was the first discovered to produce caffeine-free beans (seeds). Endemic to the Bakossi Forest Reserve in western Cameroon, the plant inhabits steep rocky slopes of wet rainforests. Charrier coffee was first collected in 1983; however, it was first described scientifically in 2008 after a morphological study discovered that it did not conform to descriptions of known Coffea species. The plant is named after André Charrier, a French botanist and geneticist known for his extensive work in coffee breeding and research.

Charrier coffee is a shrub roughly 1–1.5 metres (about 3–5 feet) tall, with thin elliptical leaf blades 2.2–3.5 cm (0.9–1.4 inches) long. The plant produces smooth elliptical seeds that are 5 mm (about 0.2 inch) in length.

Cultivated in large quantities, Charrier coffee could serve as a source of caffeine-free coffee beans for world markets, thereby reducing the need for chemical decaffeination processes, which decrease a coffee’s flavour, or genetically engineered decaffeinated coffee plants.