Caramel, cola-like spice and stone fruit. Marshell has a flavour profile that can be surprisingly distinctive, particularly for a coffee with such an uncertain family tree.
The story starts on a farm in Cajamarca, Peru, where Grimanés Morales Lizana noticed an unusual coffee tree in 1997. She didn't know what it was, and at first it wasn't especially important. Fourteen years later, a disease outbreak killed the rest of the plantation. The unusual tree survived.
Grimanés started propagating it from that survivor and eventually entered the coffee in Peru's Cup of Excellence competition. In 2019, that coffee scored 92.28 points and won the competition.
And this is where Marshell gets interesting. Nobody is completely sure what the variety actually is.
The tree that survived
Grimanés Morales Lizana found the original plant at her farm, La Lúcuma, in San Ignacio, Cajamarca, in 1997. The tree looked different from the Bourbon, Catuai and Catimor growing around it, but it was simply left to grow on the farm.
That changed in 2011, when the plantation was badly affected by ojo de pollo, also known as ojo de gallo. The fungal disease is caused by Mycena citricolor and can cause serious defoliation and crop losses in the wet conditions found in parts of Peru.
The unusual coffee tree survived.
Grimanés began propagating plants from it, eventually growing more of the coffee and giving it the name Marshell. The name is generally said to have been constructed from members of her family's names, including her father-in-law Marcelino.
That original story comes from Grimanés herself. The Alliance for Coffee Excellence's own farm record for the 2019 winning coffee also records her account of discovering the plant in 1997 and selecting it after the disease outbreak in 2011.
The Marshell Family Tree
Marshell
The varietal at the centre of this article. Discovered on Grimanés Morales Lizana's farm in San Ignacio, Cajamarca, Marshell shrugged off an ojo de pollo outbreak that destroyed everything else around it. Believed to be a natural mutation of Bourbon, though some genetic testing has pointed towards Catimor heritage. Won Cup of Excellence Peru in 2019 with a score of 92.28, beating a Geisha and a Catuai.
The 2019 Cup of Excellence win
Marshell first attracted serious international attention in 2019.
Grimanés entered the Peru Cup of Excellence with a washed coffee from La Lúcuma. It scored 92.28 points, taking first place ahead of a 91.44-point coffee in second and a 91.40-point Catuai in third.
The competition received 209 samples, with the winning coffees selected through the Cup of Excellence judging process. For a little-known coffee from a farm in northern Peru, it was a remarkable result.
There's an interesting wrinkle in the official record, though. The Alliance for Coffee Excellence lists the winning variety as Costa Rica 95. Grimanés and much of the coffee industry refer to the coffee as Marshell.
That discrepancy is important because it means we shouldn't present the genetic identity of Marshell as settled fact. The surviving plant may be a local selection related to Costa Rica 95, a mutation of Bourbon, or something else altogether. The evidence available today doesn't give us a definitive answer.
So what is Marshell?
This is probably the most interesting question about the variety.
The traditional explanation is that Marshell is a natural mutation of Bourbon. It certainly looks different from the Bourbon plants around it, and this is the explanation that has been repeated by producers, importers and roasters for several years.
There's another theory, though. Some industry sources identify Marshell as being closely related to Costa Rica 95, which is a Catimor-group cultivar. Costa Rica 95 itself was developed using Caturra and Timor Hybrid 832/1, giving it introgressed genetics from Coffea canephora (Robusta).
That theory has gained some support from genetic testing commissioned by individual coffee companies. UK roaster Full Court Press, for example, says testing performed by RD2 Vision identified its Marshell sample as a rare form of Catimor.
That doesn't completely close the case. A genetic result from one sample isn't the same thing as a published study establishing the ancestry of the whole population of coffee being called Marshell. Other descriptions of the variety continue to call it a Bourbon mutation or simply a Bourbon-type coffee.
For now, the safest description is that Marshell is a rare Peruvian coffee type with uncertain genetic origins. The Bourbon and Costa Rica 95 theories are both worth knowing about, but neither should be presented as proven.
What does Marshell taste like?
The cups are a little easier to describe than the genetics.
Marshell coffees from Cajamarca are often sweet and well balanced, with flavours ranging from caramel and brown sugar through to red and stone fruit. Cola-like spice is another recurring description, while some lots show floral or tropical characteristics.
The 2019 Cup of Excellence winning coffee was described by ACE with notes including raspberry, tropical fruit, jasmine, cola nut, black cherry, baked peach, papaya, mango, cinnamon and clove. The judges described the cup as creamy, exotic, juicy and well rounded.
More recent Marshell coffees show plenty of variation. We've seen descriptions ranging from fig and red grape to pomelo, passionfruit, floral notes and chocolate. Processing has an effect too, with washed, natural, honey and experimental fermented lots all appearing from producers in Cajamarca.
One characteristic that comes up repeatedly is how much the cup changes as it cools. A coffee can start with caramel sweetness and more familiar fruit before becoming noticeably more floral, spicy or wine-like as the temperature drops.
Why is Marshell so interesting to farmers?
The Cup of Excellence score is only part of the story.
The original Marshell plant attracted Grimanés's attention because it survived a serious disease outbreak that affected the rest of her plantation. Other farmers growing Marshell have since reported good resilience to diseases including ojo de pollo and coffee leaf rust.
That's particularly useful in Cajamarca, where coffee is often grown at high elevations in cool, wet conditions that can create pressure from fungal diseases.
It also explains some of the interest in the possible Catimor connection. Catimor cultivars are widely used because of their disease resistance, but some have historically had a reputation for producing less distinctive cups. A coffee that combines similar resilience with the cup quality seen in competition Marshells would be extremely valuable to producers.
We should be careful here, though. The precise level and consistency of Marshell's disease resistance hasn't been established through the kind of replicated varietal trials you'd normally want before making broad agronomic claims. What we have is a compelling combination of the original farmer's experience and reports from other producers growing the coffee today.
Marshell and Cajamarca
Marshell is closely associated with Cajamarca, particularly the provinces of San Ignacio, Jaén and La Coipa in the north of the region.
Many of the farms producing it today sit at around 1,700–2,000 metres above sea level. The terrain is steep and farming is often done on relatively small plots, making harvesting and processing labour-intensive.
Several producers have started planting Marshell after seeing the results from earlier farms. The variety remains rare, but it is no longer limited to the original La Lúcuma plants.
That spread is perhaps the most interesting part of the story. Marshell wasn't developed in a breeding programme and released with a catalogue number. A farmer found a plant that looked different, noticed that it survived a disease outbreak, and started growing more of it. Other farmers then saw what it could do and began planting it themselves.
Is Marshell the future?
It's too early to say.
It's tempting to describe Marshell as the answer to the old trade-off between disease resistance and cup quality. The story certainly fits: a resilient plant producing coffee good enough to win one of Peru's most important competitions.
But we don't yet know enough about the variety to make that conclusion confidently.
We need more genetic work to understand where Marshell came from, along with proper agronomic trials to establish how it performs across different environments. We also need to see how consistently the best cup profiles can be reproduced as more farms begin growing it.
What we do know is enough to make Marshell worth paying attention to. It's rare, it has an unusual story, and coffees carrying the name have shown that they can compete with much better-known varieties.
The verdict
Marshell is one of those coffees where the uncertainty is part of the appeal.
We know where the story begins: an unusual tree on a farm in Cajamarca, a disease outbreak, and a farmer who decided to propagate the survivor. We know what happened when that coffee reached the Cup of Excellence: 92.28 points and first place in Peru in 2019.
We still don't know exactly where Marshell sits in the coffee family tree.
Until the genetics are properly settled, it's probably best to keep both feet on the ground and judge it by what's in the cup. And that's hardly a bad position to be in. The coffees coming out of Cajamarca are already showing plenty of sweetness, fruit, florals and spice.
Whatever Marshell turns out to be genetically, it's a fascinating piece of Peru's coffee story.
Quick varietal facts
- Varietal: Marshell (also seen as Marshel or Marshall)
- Species: Coffea arabica, although its precise genetic background remains uncertain
- Proposed origin: La Lúcuma farm, San Ignacio, Cajamarca, Peru
- First identified: 1997, according to producer Grimanés Morales Lizana
- Propagated from: A plant that survived a serious ojo de pollo outbreak in 2011
- Genetic identity: Unconfirmed; commonly described as a natural Bourbon mutation, with Catimor/Costa Rica 95 ancestry also proposed
- Typical growing altitude: Often found at around 1,700–2,000m in Cajamarca
- Growing region: Mainly Cajamarca, Peru, including San Ignacio, Jaén and La Coipa
- Notable recognition: 2019 Cup of Excellence Peru winner, scoring 92.28 points
- Processing: Washed, natural, honey and experimental fermentation methods
- Typical cup profile: Caramel, brown sugar, cola-like spice, stone fruit, red fruit, floral notes and a clean acidity
Further reading
Alliance for Coffee Excellence – Peru 2019
The official 2019 Cup of Excellence results, including the 92.28-point winning coffee from La Lúcuma.
Alliance for Coffee Excellence – Grimanés Morales Lizana
The producer's own account of discovering the unusual coffee plant in 1997 and its survival during the 2011 disease outbreak.
Ozone Coffee NZ – Marshell: Peru's New Varietal
A closer look at the producers, history and ongoing genetic mystery surrounding Marshell.
Interested in exploring Marshell's genetic relatives? Read more about its probable parent in our guide to Bourbon, and explore other natural Bourbon mutations like Caturra and Pacas.