WCR Made a Free Arabica and Robusta Coffee Varieties Poster

A cross section of WCR’s new coffee varieties poster. More info and downloads are available at the WCR website.

Humans are imperfect and we all tend to get a bit scatter-brained every now and then.

For example, you may be a professional coffee roaster, going casually throughout your day while contemplating the complex genetic and geographic history of the very coffee that you are turning from greenish to brownish.

But wait? Is this lovely and fruity (but not particularly resilient) Mundo Novo from Brazil descended from the Bourbon or Typica genetic group within the Arabica species? (Trick question. It’s from both!)

In these moments, World Coffee Research has your back. The nonprofit group this week launched a free downloadable poster, available in numerous print-resolution standard sizes, that visually represents its Coffee Varieties Catalog.

A scaled-down version of WCR’s new coffee varieties poster. More info and downloads are available at the WCR website.

Originally launched in 2016 and significantly expanded in 2018, the catalog has been updated numerous times to include additional varieties and new hybrids, as well as supporting information about lineage, cultivation and market history, plant resiliency, quality potential, and much more. The group also unveiled a Robusta Variety Catalog earlier this year.

These free catalogs are now represented in striking visual detail — reminiscent of the Specialty Coffee Association’s coffee taster’s flavor wheel — thanks to a design led by UK design agency WebDNA.

The poster shows the lineage of 100 different coffee varieties, representing wild and commercial cultivation from 22 coffee-producing countries.

While potentially a stimulating piece of office art for roasters, traders or cafes, the reference poster is primarily intended to be a “prac­ti­cal tool and guide for cof­fee pro­duc­ers,” WCR said in an announcement of the release this week. 

“WCR is committed to making research accessible across the coffee value chain,” the group said. “We invite coffee producers, researchers, institutes, roasters, retailers, cuppers, and others to join in the celebration of coffee’s variety by printing the poster locally, displaying it in their respective offices and shops, and sharing it widely across their own networks.”

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