Some coffee varieties arrive with paperwork. Documented breeding programmes, named parent plants, a clean genetic trail leading back to a research station and a dated release. Papayo arrived with a shrug. Nobody can say for certain where it came from. Nobody can prove what it's related to. And in October 2025, it won the World Barista Championship.
Pronounced pa-pie-oh, Papayo is a rare arabica variety found almost exclusively in Colombia. It's grown mostly around the small town of Acevedo in Huila, with scattered plantings creeping into Tolima and Quindío. Its name comes from its cherries, which grow in elongated, oval clusters that look uncannily like miniature papayas and ripen to a vivid orange. They're easy to spot in a row of red Caturra. And the coffee they produce is, by most accounts, extraordinary.
The Cherry That Named the Coffee
Most coffee cherries look broadly similar. Round, glossy, red when ripe, give or take a few millimetres and a shade or two. Papayo doesn't play along. Its cherries are noticeably elongated, almost pointed at the tip, growing in tight clusters along the branch. When they ripen, they shift through yellow into a striking orange that's closer to ripe papaya flesh than to the deep crimson of most arabica.
The bean inside is large and dense. Comparable to Pacamara or Gesha in size, with the same elongated shape that gives roasters something to think about. Big beans behave differently in the roaster than smaller ones, and Papayo is no exception. We'll come back to that.
For producers walking through their plots, the visual difference is part of the appeal. You can see Papayo from the other end of a row. You know what you're picking, and you can pick it selectively, which matters enormously when a single tree can carry cherries at three different stages of ripeness.
Where Papayo Comes From (If Anyone Actually Knows)
Here's where things get interesting. Papayo's genetic backstory is, at the time of writing, unresolved. There are roughly four theories floating around the specialty trade, and they can't all be right.
The first is that Papayo is a spontaneous mutation of Caturra or Bourbon, the two cultivars most widely planted in Colombia. This is the default explanation that producers tend to reach for when they spot a strange-looking plant in a Caturra block. It's also the least exciting answer, which is part of why people keep looking for alternatives.
The second is that Papayo is an Ethiopian landrace descendant, perhaps left behind by an old research station in Huila that was cultivating varieties from across the arabica world. Huila is home to several other "rediscovered" varieties with similar mystery origin stories – Pink Bourbon, Ombligon, Typica Mejorado – and the abandoned research station theory does a tidy job of explaining why they all turned up in roughly the same place.
The third theory, growing in popularity, is that Papayo is closely related to Pink Bourbon, or to whatever Pink Bourbon is descended from. Some producers and green buyers have suggested Papayo and the equally mysterious Ombligon may both be mutations of Pink Bourbon, or share a common ancestor with it. None of this has been confirmed by genetic testing, and the three varieties are best understood as distinct for now – possibly part of the same broader "mystery Huila" family, possibly not.
The fourth, and possibly the most honest, is that nobody knows yet. World Coffee Research has been clear that without genetic testing across multiple verified samples, it can't confirm any of the popular theories. Coffee plants get misidentified all the time. A single mislabelled tree can become a whole farm's worth of "Papayo" that turns out to be something else entirely. Until someone runs the lab work, we're working with educated guesses.
What's not in dispute is that Papayo grows like an arabica, drinks like an arabica, and behaves like a variety with serious cup potential. The genetics will get sorted out eventually. In the meantime, the coffee speaks for itself.
Where Papayo Grows
The variety's centre of gravity is Huila, the southwestern Colombian department that has, over the past decade, become specialty coffee's most prolific source of "what is that?" varieties. Within Huila, Papayo is concentrated around Acevedo, a small municipality in the south of the department where smallholders have been experimenting with rare varieties for years.
You'll also find scattered Papayo plantings further north in Tolima – around Líbano in particular – and in parts of Quindío. Outside Colombia, it barely exists. There are anecdotal reports of trial plantings in Ecuador and Central America, but nothing at any meaningful scale.
Most Papayo is grown between roughly 1,400 and 2,000 metres above sea level, with the highest-scoring lots typically coming from the upper end of that range. Higher elevations slow the cherry's maturation, develop denser seeds, and concentrate sugars and acids. It's the same principle that applies to most specialty arabica, but Papayo seems to respond to altitude more dramatically than most.
One thing worth flagging: there's some disagreement in the trade about whether Papayo is a low-yielding variety or a high-yielding one. Some roasters describe it as a tiny-volume curiosity that struggles to produce. Others, including some of the green buyers who've sourced it directly, describe it as comparatively productive when grown well. The truth probably depends on the farm, the elevation, and the agronomic care it receives. We'll know more as cultivation expands.
What Papayo Tastes Like
If there's one thing the various Papayo lots out in the wild agree on, it's that this variety leans tropical. Hard.
The dominant flavour signature is fruit-forward, sweet, and aromatic. Tasting notes published by roasters who've worked with Papayo cluster around mango, passionfruit, pineapple, papaya, and guava on the tropical side, with stone fruit (peach, apricot, plum) and red berry notes (cherry, raspberry, redcurrant) making frequent appearances. Citrus is common too, usually at the brighter, mandarin-and-lime end of the spectrum.
Underneath the fruit, you'll often find delicate florals (jasmine, hibiscus, sometimes elderflower), a touch of honey or brown sugar sweetness, and on some lots a tea-like quality that brings to mind oolong or assam. The acidity is typically vibrant without tipping into sharpness, and the body is silky and clean.
Process amplifies all of this. Washed Papayo tends to read cleaner and more structured, with the florals and citrus pushed forward. Naturals dial up the sweetness, the body, and the riper tropical-fruit notes. Anaerobic and carbonic maceration approaches – which most producers experimenting with Papayo seem to gravitate toward – push the variety into its most intense, perfumed, almost confectionery register. That's the territory where Papayo earns competition placements.
The Processing Factor
One of the reasons green buyers keep coming back to Papayo is its flexibility. Some varieties have a clear "best" processing route – wash this, you'll regret naturalising that – but Papayo seems to take to a wide range of approaches without losing its identity. Producers have made compelling lots using washed, honey, natural, anaerobic natural, and carbonic maceration methods, and the cup quality holds up across the board.
That said, the most celebrated Papayo lots tend to lean experimental. Anaerobic naturals, in particular, have become something of a calling card. The slow, oxygen-deprived fermentation amplifies Papayo's already-intense fruit character and adds the kind of perfumed complexity that competition baristas look for. Carbonic maceration, the technique borrowed from Beaujolais winemaking and popularised in coffee by Sasa Sestic in 2015, is another natural fit. So is extended anaerobic fermentation, which tends to push Papayo's mango and passionfruit notes into riper, denser territory.
In short: if you've got Papayo cherries and you want to take a swing at something experimental, the variety isn't going to fight you.
Roasting a Bigger Bean
Big beans need big roasts. That's the short version. Papayo's elongated, dense seeds behave a lot like Pacamara or Gesha in the drum, which means a few small adjustments rather than your default approach to a Caturra or Castillo lot.
The most consistent advice from roasters who've worked with Papayo is to extend the development phase. The size and density of the bean mean sugars need a little longer to fully develop, and a too-short roast can leave the cup tasting underdeveloped, papery, or grassy – which is a tragedy for a variety this fruit-forward. A gentler charge temperature, slightly slower momentum through first crack, and a development time that gives those big beans a chance to catch up tends to produce the best results.
The good news is that Papayo seems to be reasonably forgiving once you've worked out the broad strokes. It tolerates a range of approaches without falling apart, which is welcome news for any roaster meeting the variety for the first time.
The Competition Trail
Papayo's reputation has been building quietly on competition stages for a few years. Producers in Huila have used it in regional Colombian competitions with strong results, and individual roasters have cupped competition-grade Papayo lots from farms like Finca El Mirador in Acevedo. But the variety's biggest moment, by some distance, came in October 2025.
At HostMilano in Milan, Australia's Jack Simpson won the 25th World Barista Championship. He scored almost 20 points clear of the runner-up. It was his third time on the WBC stage – third in 2023, second in 2024, and finally first in 2025 – and his routine was unusually personal, built around journal entries from the previous year and the relationships he'd developed with the producers behind his coffees.
One of those coffees was an anaerobic natural Papayo from Finca Zarza in Bruselas, Pitalito, in southern Huila. The farm is run by Jhonatan Gasca, alongside his brother Johan and partner Alejandra Muñoz, and has become one of the most exciting addresses in Colombian specialty coffee. Simpson used the Papayo for his milk course and a Gesha from Jamison Savage's Finca Deborah in Panama for his espresso. He brought both producers onto the stage with him.
This wasn't Papayo's first competition appearance, but it was by some distance its biggest. The win does for Papayo something similar to what Sasa Sestic's 2015 routine did for Sudan Rume and what Jooyeon Jeon and Anthony Douglas did for Sidra in 2019 and 2022: it puts a name on the global specialty map, validates the producers who've taken risks on cultivating it, and signals to the rest of the industry that this is a variety worth paying attention to.
Expect to see a lot more Papayo on competition stages over the next few years.
Why Papayo Is Still Rare – and Where It's Heading
The pattern with these "rediscovered" Huila varieties is by now familiar. A high-profile competition placement creates demand. Demand creates incentive for producers to plant more. More plantings create the volume that allows a variety to move from competition-only nano-lots to something a few more roasters can actually offer their customers. It's the cycle that Geisha walked in the years after the 2004 Best of Panama. It's the cycle Sudan Rume entered after 2015. It's the cycle Sidra is currently in the middle of.
Papayo is at the very start of that curve. There's still very little of it in the world. Almost all of what exists is concentrated around a handful of small farms in Huila. The genetic uncertainty hasn't been resolved. The economics are unproven at scale, and many of the producers who've experimented with it are doing so on small, dedicated micro-lot blocks rather than committing significant land to a variety with no track record.
But Papayo has now picked up the kind of validation that tends to accelerate things. Given how adaptable it is to different processing approaches, how distinctive it tastes, and how visually arresting the cherries are, there's every reason to think the variety will follow Pink Bourbon and Ombligon out of obscurity and into wider circulation. The next few harvests will tell us a lot about whether Papayo becomes the next darling of the competition circuit or settles into a quieter life as a connoisseur curiosity.
We've been watching Papayo with interest for a while, and we're delighted to be introducing our first Papayo lot to the Ozone roster soon. If you've enjoyed our adventures in single origin Colombian coffees, this one is going to be worth waiting for.
Quick Varietal Facts
Varietal: Papayo (sometimes "Bourbon Papayo")
Type: Arabica; genetic origins unverified
Pronunciation: pa-pie-oh
Origin: Huila, Colombia – primarily around Acevedo
Possible Genetic Relationships: Caturra or Bourbon mutation, Ethiopian landrace descendant, Pink Bourbon relative – none confirmed by genetic testing
Cherry Appearance: Elongated, oval, clustered; ripen from yellow to vivid orange
Bean Shape: Large, dense, elongated – comparable to Pacamara and Gesha
Optimal Altitude: 1,400–2,000m; highest-scoring lots typically from the upper end
Disease Resistance: Moderate; less robust than purpose-bred hybrids like Castillo
Yield: Disputed – reports range from low to comparatively productive depending on farm and elevation
Key Growing Regions: Huila (especially Acevedo), with smaller plantings in Tolima and Quindío
Typical Cup Profile: Tropical fruit (mango, passionfruit, pineapple, papaya), stone fruit, red berry, citrus, jasmine and hibiscus florals, tea-like finish, silky body
Best Processing Methods: Highly adaptable; standout results from anaerobic natural and carbonic maceration
Notable Competition Use: 2025 World Barista Championship (winner Jack Simpson, Australia, anaerobic natural Papayo from Finca Zarza, Colombia)
Further Reading
Perfect Daily Grind – The Papayo variety: Why you might see this coffee at competitions
A useful overview of Papayo's origin theories and competition potential, with input from Sucafina, Partners Coffee, and Cuatro Vientos. Worth reading for the discussion of Papayo's relationship to Pink Bourbon and Ombligon, and for the cautionary note from World Coffee Research about unverified genetic claims.
Fresh Cup – Looking Back at 25 Years of the World Barista Championship
A detailed account of Jack Simpson's 2025 WBC win and the producers behind his routine. Useful context for understanding how Papayo arrived on the world stage – and how the WBC has evolved as a platform for new varieties over its 25-year history.
Our Sudan Rume Guide
Sudan Rume is the variety that, ten years before Papayo, did something very similar at the WBC – winning the competition and reshaping how the industry thinks about processing. Required reading if you're interested in how a single competition coffee can change a category.
Our Anaerobic Fermentation Guide
The processing approach that's most associated with the most celebrated Papayo lots, including Jack Simpson's WBC-winning coffee. Worth a read for the underlying chemistry and how it shapes the final cup.
Interested in exploring more exceptional arabica varieties? Read our guides to Geisha, Sidra, and Sudan Rume.