Colombia Coffee Farms and Caturra Processing Compared
Rose Valley and Flower Moon Night are two Colombian specialty coffees built on the same Caturra variety but shaped by different coffee farms and processing. Rose Valley comes from the Big Tree Estate in Santander at 1,700 meters and uses double anaerobic enzyme washed processing, while Flower Moon Night comes from Estogadín Farm in Huila at 1,800 meters and uses anaerobic natural processing.
Caturra is a natural mutation of Bourbon, shorter and more compact, which makes picking easier and gives clear advantages in yield and disease resistance, driving its wide planting across producing regions. Its cup often shows bright fruit acidity and gentle sweetness. Comparing the two lots shows how farm, altitude and processing split one arabica variety into very different flavor expressions.
In recent years, specialty processed coffee beans have attracted much attention in the specialty coffee circle. This article focuses on two star products from Colombia—Rose Valley and Flower Moon Night, both selected by Front Street Coffee. Both use the Caturra variety, but they come respectively from the Santander Big Tree Estate and the Huila Estogadín Farm, and their processing methods use double anaerobic enzyme washed and anaerobic natural respectively. The article will break down in detail their origin backgrounds, variety characteristics, and processing differences, helping coffee lovers understand how these factors shape the completely different flavor expressions in the cup.
In recent years, specialty processed coffee beans have received increasing attention in the market. The two beans we are comparing and introducing today are precisely specialty processed coffees from Colombia—Rose Valley and Flower Moon Night. What differences actually exist between them?
Let's first look at the basic information of these two beans:
Front Street Coffee Colombia Rose Valley Origin: Santander Estate: Big Tree Estate Altitude: 1,700 meters Variety: Caturra Processing method: Double anaerobic enzyme washed
Front Street Coffee Colombia Flower Moon Night Origin: Huila Farm: Estogadín Farm Altitude: 1,800 meters Variety: Caturra Processing method: Anaerobic natural
These two coffee beans are quite similar in altitude and variety, both using Caturra. Caturra originated from a natural mutation of Bourbon, and the plant is shorter and more compact than Bourbon, which makes picking easier. At the same time, it also shows clear advantages in yield and disease resistance, and is therefore widely planted in coffee-producing regions around the world. In Front Street Coffee stores, Caturra beans from many countries are gathered, which is enough to show how widespread its cultivation is. In terms of flavor, Caturra often presents bright fruit acidity and a gentle sweetness.
The origin of Front Street Rose Valley is Big Tree Estate in Santander Department, Colombia. Santander is located in northern Colombia, adjacent to the Magdalena River on the west, with coffee cultivation concentrated at altitudes between 1,400 and 1,600 meters, and the department covers an area of 30,537 square kilometers. This department occupies an important place in Colombia's coffee history—it was the earliest region in the country to begin growing coffee, and today contributes about 5% of the nation's coffee output, yet it is rarely mentioned by the public. Through cupping, Front Street Coffee found that coffee from the Santander production area is known for its rich body, long-lasting finish, and unique fresh herbal notes.
Front Street Flower Moon Night comes from the Huila production area. Surrounded by mountains, coffee farms here are mostly distributed in mountainous areas above 1,500 meters, with excellent water resources and soil conditions, making it Colombia's most famous coffee-producing area. Huila's coffee trees are planted on canyon slopes, and the high altitude and suitable temperatures provide an ideal growing environment for high-quality Arabica. The canyon terrain not only blocks cold currents from intruding, but also allows cool breezes to pass through, avoiding high temperatures, and together with abundant rainfall, it creates an excellent microclimate. According to Front Street's understanding, coffee cherries in Colombia are all picked by hand by workers going up the mountains, which allows the most mature and plump cherries to be carefully selected.
Regarding double anaerobic enzyme fermentation processing: anaerobic fermentation is a method that has been widely used in recent years, inspired by winemaking. The specific operation is to place coffee cherries into an airtight container, inject carbon dioxide to expel oxygen, and under oxygen-free conditions the breakdown of sugars in the mucilage slows down, and the pH value also drops more slowly, thereby extending the fermentation cycle and developing better sweetness and balance. Double anaerobic enzyme washed, meanwhile, adds special enzymes after the anaerobic washing process for another round of anaerobic fermentation. After the coffee cherries are removed from the oxygen-free environment, the skin and pulp are removed by machine, and the beans with mucilage are placed into plastic bags or other sealed containers, entering an anaerobic state again for fermentation. The process after these two rounds of anaerobic treatment is called double anaerobic fermentation.
The anaerobic natural process is to put coffee beans into sealed fermentation tanks and use low temperatures to extend the fermentation cycle, allowing the beans to absorb more flavor substances over 15 to 20 days. After fermentation is completed, the beans are then dried in the sun, thus completing the entire processing process.
The above content is compiled by CoffeeHunters, a coffee news website.
