A caffeine-free wild coffee from West Cameroon, described in 2008 and only the second caffeine-free Coffea recorded in Africa.
*Coffea charrieriana* is endemic to West Cameroon, where it grows in wet rainforest on rocky slopes at about 160 to 300 m in the Bakossi Forest Reserve. Piet Stoffelen and François Anthony described it in 2008 in the Botanical Journal of the Linnean Society. Its seeds are caffeine-free, and Wikipedia reports that a deficient caffeine synthase gene leads it to produce theobromine instead. It is only the second caffeine-free Coffea species recorded in Africa, after *Coffea pseudozanguebariae* from Kenya.
The species is Critically Endangered, known from a single location and threatened by deforestation from logging and palm oil. Its caffeine-free seeds have drawn interest for naturally decaffeinated coffee breeding.
History
Described in 2008 by Piet Stoffelen and François Anthony. Biochemical analysis confirmed its seeds are caffeine-free.
Field notes
- i
Coffea charrieriana is only the second caffeine-free Coffea species recorded in Africa, after Coffea pseudozanguebariae from Kenya.
- ii
It is named for Professor André Charrier, who led coffee breeding research and collection at IRD for thirty years, and it was voted among the top ten species described in 2008.
Sources · 2 Every sentence here was checked against a source we read. Taste notes are what guides describe, not promises about your bag. Last revised 2026-11-10.
- GBIF species distributions from the World Checklist of Vascular Plants (Coffea arabica, canephora, liberica, eugenioides, stenophylla, racemosa, congensis, charrieriana) · GBIF / Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew (WCVP)
- Coffea charrieriana · Wikipedia