Maragogipe
A naturally occurring mutation of Typica first identified in Brazil, notable for unusually large beans and plants. Generally lower-yielding and less widely grown commercially than its size might suggest.
In short
Maragogipe is a natural mutation of Typica in which everything is oversized: the beans, the leaves and the spacing between the nodes on each branch. It was discovered near the Brazilian city of Maragogipe in 1870, and the World Coffee Research catalogue attributes the change to a single dominant gene.
It is a tall plant with very large beans, good to very good cup quality in Central America, and a very low yield. Almost nobody would plant it for the harvest alone.
One gene, a larger plant
Sourced
Dwarf mutations such as Caturra make a coffee plant compact. Maragogipe is the opposite case. The catalogue records that the mutation makes the beans, the internode spacing and the leaves especially large, and that it is dominant, so it shows in the offspring of a cross.
The catalogue lists no breeder. Maragogipe was found, not bred, and it places the variety in the Typica-related part of the Bourbon and Typica group.
The numbers behind the low yield
Sourced
| Variable | Typical range | What moving it does |
|---|---|---|
| Stature | Tall | |
| Lineage | Natural mutation of Typica | |
| Leaf tip colour | Bronze | |
| Bean size | Very large | |
| Yield potential | Low | |
| Quality potential at high altitude | Very good | |
| Optimal altitude | High | |
| Nutrition requirement | Low | |
| Coffee leaf rust | Susceptible | |
| Coffee berry disease | Susceptible | |
| Nematodes | Susceptible | |
| First production | Year 4 | A year later than the compact varieties. |
| Planting density | 3,000–4,000 plants per hectare | Fewer trees fit on the land. |
| Cherry to green bean outturn | Very high |
As listed in the World Coffee Research catalogue.
Why big beans mean a small crop
CoffeeHQ explanation
The wide spacing between nodes is the heart of it. Coffee fruit forms at the nodes, so a branch with its nodes far apart carries fewer clusters of cherries than a branch of the same length on another variety. Add a large tree that must be planted at lower density and that bears a year later, and the yield per hectare is low on every count.
What survives of Maragogipe is grown because the size of the bean is itself a selling point. The trade nickname is elephant bean, and the beans are sorted and sold on their appearance. That is a market for curiosity and for a distinctive lot, not for volume.
Its parent, its opposite and its offspring
Sourced
- Typica — The parent lineage. Both are tall and susceptible to every major disease; Maragogipe is Typica enlarged.
- Caturra — A single-gene mutation in the other direction: compact where Maragogipe is outsized, and planted about half as densely again.
- Pacamara — Maragogipe crossed with the dwarf Pacas, keeping the very large bean on a compact plant.
A practical note for anyone who buys it
CoffeeHQ explanation
Very large beans behave differently from ordinary ones in a roaster and a grinder, simply because of their size: heat takes longer to reach the centre of a bigger seed, and a batch that mixes very large beans with ordinary ones will not roast evenly. That is general roasting reasoning and not a claim about any particular lot, but it is the reason Maragogipe is normally roasted and sold alone.
What to do next
- Pacamara — The variety bred to put this bean on a smaller tree.
- Typica — The founding lineage Maragogipe mutated from.
- How roasting works — Why bean size matters to an even roast.
- Become a coffee expert — A structured programme from the plant and its processing to roasting, water and tasting.
Where Maragogipe is documented in the atlas
Only countries CoffeeHQ has written an entry for, and only where a document it has read names Maragogipe there. This is not a list of everywhere it is grown.
- Nicaragua. Listed among the other common varieties in the USDA attaché's 2026 report, which gives no share for it. Source: Nicaragua: Coffee Annual (NU2026-0003).
- Brazil. A natural mutation of Typica discovered near the Brazilian city of Maragogipe in 1870. Source: Coffee Varieties Catalog: arabica and robusta entries, with the histories of each.
Parent varieties
Learn it as a course
The Coffee Expert lesson Species and varieties covers this ground in order, with exercises you can do at home.