Colombia Santa Rita Flavor and Aroma | Colombian Coffee Varieties and Prices

Pour-over Colombia Santa Rita: use 15g of coffee at a medium grind size (Fuji ghost tooth grinder at #4) in a V60 dripper with water at 88-89 degrees C. Pour 30g of water for a 27-second bloom, then pour up to 105g and pause. Once the water level drops to half, pour slowly up to 225g. Cut off the tail end. Water-to-coffee ratio 1:15, total extraction time 2:00.

Flavor: sugarcane sweetness, clean cup, medium body.

Colombia: The Land of Coffee Excellence

Located in northwestern South America, Colombia is a beautiful country with a long history. Indigenous peoples thrived on this land for centuries; it became a Spanish colony in 1531 and gained independence in 1819. In 1886 it was renamed to its current name in honor of Christopher Columbus, the discoverer of the American continent. With beautiful mountains, a comfortable spring-like climate year-round, and fresh air, Colombia is rich in natural resources, and coffee, flowers, gold, and emeralds are known as the country's "four treasures." Today Colombia is the second-largest coffee producer after Brazil, the world's largest exporter of Arabica coffee beans, and the world's largest exporter of washed coffee. Colombian coffee is often described as having a silky-smooth texture and the best balance of any coffee: soft, gentle, and drinkable at any time of day. It has earned praise no other coffee can match, earning the nickname "green gold."

Caturra: The Bourbon Variant

Caturra is a natural mutation of the Arabica Bourbon variety, discovered in Brazil in 1937. The plant is shorter and more compact than Bourbon, and like its parent it has relatively weak disease resistance but higher yields. Although it was discovered in Brazil, Caturra never suited Brazilian conditions and was never planted there on a large scale; instead it spread across Central and South America, with extensive cultivation in Colombia, Costa Rica, and Nicaragua.

Beyond the botany, what about the cup? The higher the altitude where Caturra is grown, the better the quality, though correspondingly lower the yield. Lightly roasted, Caturra shows distinct acidic aromatics and overall brightness, and with careful processing its sweetness can be excellent. Its body is thinner than Bourbon's, however, and the cup cleanliness falls a little short.

Caturra typically produces red cherries, but in a handful of rare regions yellow Caturra exists. Hawaii, for example, grows very small quantities of it.

Catuai: The Hybrid Variety

Catuai is a variety created through artificial crossbreeding of Caturra and Mundo Novo, giving it good resistance to natural stresses, particularly wind and rain.

Catuai trees are relatively short, and the fruit attaches more firmly to the branch, making harvesting harder. The fruit comes in both red and yellow types, and to date no taste advantage has been found in the yellow: some cuppers have noted that while coffee from certain yellow fruits has good acidity, the cleanliness of the cup is inferior to that of red fruit.

Catuai was developed in Brazil and is now widely cultivated throughout Central America as well.

Product Information

Producer: FrontStreet Coffee
Ingredients: In-house roasted
Shelf life: 90 days
Net weight: 227g
Packaging: Whole beans
Taste: Aromatic and mellow
Coffee bean state: Roasted beans
Sugar content: Sugar-free
Origin: Colombia
Coffee type: Colombian coffee
Roast level: Medium roast

Colombia Santa Rita Special Reserve

Country: Colombia
Region: Antioquia Department
Altitude: 1600-2100 meters
Processing method: Washed

Santa Rita Estate is located in the Antioquia Department of Colombia, in a micro-production area adjacent to the Andes Mountains. This premium coffee is produced collaboratively by 9 nearby farms, which still process their coffee in the traditional way: the cherries are hand-picked and washed processed, then the dried beans are laid out on raised racks to finish drying in the sun. The Andean environment provides the region with fertile volcanic soil and uniquely favorable water resources.

Varieties: Catuai, Caturra
Estate: Santa Rita

The History of Colombian Coffee

Coffee cultivation in Colombia traces back to the Spanish colonial era of the 16th century, though its exact origins are the subject of several competing accounts.

One theory holds that coffee arrived by sea from the Caribbean island of Haiti and passed through El Salvador in Central America.

Another says that in 1808 a priest first brought coffee beans to Colombia from the French Antilles via Venezuela; a related version claims the first seeds entered through Santander Province from Venezuela.

A third theory points to the earliest written record of Colombian coffee: the Spanish missionary Jose Gumilla's book "The Illustrated Orinoca," in which he described coffee plantations he saw during missionary work along the Meta River in 1730. By 1787, other missionaries had spread coffee to other parts of Colombia.

FrontStreet Coffee Recommendation

If Santa Rita's sugarcane sweetness and smooth balance suit your palate, FrontStreet Coffee's Brazilian offerings make a rewarding comparison, since Colombia's southern neighbor grows coffee with a similar gentle acidity and excellent balance. The FrontStreet Cerrado Red Bourbon from Brazil's famous Cerrado region is a classic half-natural (pulped natural) lot: medium roasted, it shows aromas of cream and peanut, toasted bread, caramel, and hazelnut, with a round, non-acidic cup and just a whisper of bitterness, and it works equally well as pour-over, moka pot, espresso SOE, siphon, or French press.

For something a step up, FrontStreet Coffee's Queen's Estate (Fazenda Rainha) Yellow Bourbon, grown in Mogiana near South Minas on fertile red volcanic soil, is a rare yellow mutation of Red Bourbon with a cleaner fruit character. Brewed by pour-over, moka pot, or home espresso machine, it reveals a sugarcane sweetness you will not find elsewhere, layered with fruit and chocolate notes. Brazil's low acidity and balance are also why FrontStreet Coffee's espresso blends all contain Brazilian beans: they add chocolate and cream aromatics plus a soft sweet-sour-bitter harmony that makes extraction more stable.