What defines the Caturra type of coffee seeds?
Caturra is a natural mutation of Bourbon, first found between 1915 and 1918 on a plantation in Minas Gerais, Brazil. Its compact plant size, high yield, and ability to adapt to direct sunlight made it a mainstay variety across Central and South America. The name comes from the Guarani language and means "small."
Brazil's São Paulo State Agricultural College began screening this type of coffee seeds in 1937 through mass selection. Caturra never achieved formal commercial cultivation in Brazil but became widespread in Central America. Dense secondary branches let the short plants bear more fruit, and pure Caturra from the Alasitas estate in Bolivia shows its typical cup profile.
Caturra is one of the most common coffee varieties in Central and South America. As a natural mutation of Bourbon, it has become the mainstay variety in many producing regions thanks to its compact size, high yield, and ability to adapt to direct sunlight. This article will guide readers through a comprehensive understanding of this variety, covering Caturra's origin and discovery, its botanical advantages, its spread across Central and South America, and the typical flavors presented by the pure Caturra coffee beans from the Alasitas estate in Bolivia selected by Front Street Coffee. Whether you are just beginning to learn about coffee varieties or want to gain a deeper understanding of the relationship between Caturra and Catuai, this article offers clear and practical reference.
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In the coffee-producing regions of Central and South America, Caturra is a variety with an extremely high frequency of appearance. So what are the notable characteristics of this variety in terms of plant morphology and cup flavor presentation?
Caturra is a natural mutation of Bourbon. Between 1915 and 1918, it was first discovered on a plantation in Minas Gerais, Brazil. At that time, a group of genes in the Bourbon population on the plantation mutated, causing the overall size of the plants to become smaller and take on a form resembling dwarfism. The locals named this new coffee variety, which appeared in a completely new biological form, "Caturra" in the Guarani language, meaning "small." Sometimes it is also called "Nanico."
The São Paulo State Agricultural College (IAC) in Campinas, Brazil, began screening Caturra in 1937. This breeding process is known as mass selection. Specifically, a group of individuals is selected based on superior traits, their seeds are then gathered and bred into the next generation, and this cycle repeats. Interestingly, however, this variety never achieved formal commercial cultivation in Brazil, but instead took root and became very widespread in Central America.
The advantages of Caturra
The Caturra plant is short in stature, a characteristic that allows growers to plant coffee trees more densely. At the same time, its secondary branches are spaced very close together, meaning it can bear more fruit on the same area of land, significantly increasing yield per unit area. In addition, its compact plant shape makes harvesting less labor-intensive.
A particularly key point is that Caturra, unlike older varieties such as Typica and Bourbon, does not rely on shade trees and still grows vigorously under direct sunlight. Therefore, coffees of the Caturra type are also called "Sun Coffee." Caturra is suitable for planting at altitudes of 700 to 1,700 meters. Its adaptability to the environment surpasses that of Bourbon, and the higher the altitude, the better its flavor expression.
Like Bourbon, Caturra also has a cyclical problem of fluctuating productivity every two years. It possesses both high-quality acidity and aroma, is bright overall, and has quite good sweetness as well.
Where Caturra is grown
From its discovery to selection research at IAC, Caturra was introduced to Guatemala in the 1940s, but it did not gain widespread commercial adoption over the following 30 years. It then spread from Guatemala to Costa Rica, Honduras, and Panama. Today, Caturra is one of the most important economic coffee varieties in Central America. In the rich coffee list of Front Street Coffee, products such as Guatemala's Flor del Café, Honduras's Lychee Orchid, Colombia's Rose Valley, and Panama's Butterfly all contain the Caturra variety.
To some extent, Caturra is often used as a "benchmark" for testing new varieties. In Colombia, Caturra's production was once thought to account for nearly half of the country's total output, until a government-funded program launched in 2008 encouraged the renewal and transformation of more than 3 billion coffee trees with the leaf-rust-resistant Castillo variety (which has Caturra lineage), after which Caturra's share of cultivation began to decline.
What does Caturra taste like?
Because estates in Central and South America mostly plant Caturra and Catuai together, and Catuai itself carries Caturra genes, while the two are quite similar in morphology, the cost of distinguishing them outweighs the benefit. Therefore, the vast majority of American beans on the market are labeled as Caturra and Catuai mixed varieties.
For this reason, Front Street specifically selected Caturra coffee beans from the Alasitas estate in Bolivia as a representative of the flavor expression of the Caturra variety. This bean is a pure Caturra variety.
This Caturra coffee uses the estate's unique cacao natural processing method. After the coffee cherries are harvested, they are first loaded into crates. This not only ensures the cherries are not damaged during transport, but also keeps them ventilated to avoid unnecessary early fermentation.
After sorting and weighing, the coffee cherries are carefully washed and then placed on raised African drying beds to dry, during which they are turned once every hour. After about a week, the cherries are sent to a cacao dryer. The coffee beans rest in large steel drums at a temperature not exceeding 40 degrees Celsius for about 35 hours, being turned every 30 minutes. Once drying is complete, the estate performs fine hulling and grading by machine, and manual sorting under ultraviolet and natural light is also required.
For roasting, Front Street used a medium-light roast to showcase Caturra's fresh, sweet fruity notes. For brewing, Front Street used the common three-stage method: in the first stage, bloom with 30 grams of water for 30 seconds; in the second stage, pour in a small stream in circles until reaching 125 grams, then pause; when the water level drops and is about to expose the coffee bed, continue pouring in the third stage until reaching 225 grams and stop; when the water level drops again and is about to expose the coffee bed, remove the dripper. The total extraction time (starting from the beginning of the bloom) is 2 minutes 00 seconds.
The flavor profile shows fermented fruit aromas, grape juice, and raisins, with a rich aroma and a smooth mouthfeel.
The above content is compiled by CoffeeHunters, a coffee news website.
