Reunion Island

The small French island of Réunion (originally named 'Île Bourbon') sits in the southern Indian Ocean close to Mauritius. Coffee was originally introduced to Réunion in 1708 by the French, who brought 60 coffee plants over from Yemen, but they did not survive. In 1711, Louis Boyvin d’Hardancourt of the French East India Company visited the island and urged that coffee be tried once more. In 1715 a ship arrived with young coffee plants from Mocha; of the twenty that survived the voyage, only two took root, yet from those two plants grew all of the island’s famous Bourbon coffee. In 1771 they were found to have naturally mutated into the Bourbon Pointu variety grown today, and became highly esteemed in the court of Louis XV.

Coffee production had almost disappeared on Réunion until a small group of dedicated coffee farmers, under the leadership of Yoshiaki Kawashima (research director at Ueshima Coffee Company) formed the Bourbon Pointu cooperative in 2008 and brought production back in small commercial quantities.

This Bourbon Pointu is grown and hand-picked on the volcanic slopes of the Piton des Neiges, and has an elongated, pointed shape true to its name. Each batch is tested by a jury in order to classify the coffee, with only the very finest zero-defect beans given the classification of 'Le Grand Cru'. Bourbon Pointu beans naturally have less than half the caffeine content (0.5-0.6%) of most other Arabica varieties (1.3-1.5%).

We roast all our coffee beans in small artisanal batches each day to preserve freshness and consistency. All ground coffee is ground to order just before shipping, so you can be assured your coffee has arrived as fresh as possible.

The majority of our coffees are medium roasted as a standard, unless otherwise stated on the product page.

Please contact us if you have any questions about our coffees or the way we roast.

All orders are packed and shipped from our roastery in the UK.

We aim to process and ship orders within 1-2 working days, although large orders containing multiple varieties of roasted coffee may take slightly longer. 

UK shipping is free on orders over £100.

For international orders, shipping costs and any duties & taxes are calculated and prepaid for at checkout - Any charges at customs are then dealt with in advance by us to ensure your coffee arrives as quickly as possible.