Maragogipe

Maragogipe is a Typica mutation that produces beans large enough to be sold on their appearance, and it is the clearest case on this site of one word occupying two dimensions at once.

A variety and a preparation

As a variety, Maragogipe is a mutation identified near the town of Maragogipe in Bahia, Brazil, producing a much larger bean on a lower-yielding plant.

As a preparation, “Maragogipe” is one of the terms inside Colombia’s Excelso export standard, sitting alongside Supremo, Extra, Premium, Caracol, Europa and UGQ – a screen-size category, describing physical bean size in a graded lot.

These are not the same claim. One says what plant the seed came from. The other says what came out of a sizing screen. A bag marked Maragogipe may mean either, and a data model with a single variety column will file both under the same key and lose the distinction permanently. This is why the origin records here hold grade preparations separately from the variety list.

Bought by eye

The bean is the selling point. The plant yields poorly, has no rust resistance, and the cup is generally described as soft and mild rather than distinguished. It survives because a visibly enormous bean commands a premium that its cup score would not.

Qualifications on the record

Parentage

A mutation of Typica producing markedly larger beans, found near Maragogipe in Bahia, Brazil

Typical cup

Soft, low-acid and mild. Bought for the visual novelty of the bean as often as for the cup.

What “Declared only” means here

Nobody has tested it. This is the normal state of almost every coffee sold.

Origins where it is recorded