What are the Colombian Santa Rita Coffee Brands and Colombian Coffee Brewing Steps

Colombia: The Land of Coffee Excellence

Colombia occupies the northwestern corner of South America, a beautiful country with a long history. Indigenous peoples thrived here from ancient times; it became a Spanish colony in 1531 and won independence in 1819. In 1886 it took its current name, honoring Christopher Columbus, the discoverer of the American continent. The mountains are lovely, the climate spring-like year-round, the air fresh. Rich in natural resources, Colombia counts coffee, flowers, gold, and emeralds as its "four treasures." Today it is the second-largest coffee producer after Brazil, the world's largest exporter of Arabica beans, and the world's largest exporter of washed beans. Colombian coffee is often described as silky, with the best balance of any coffee—a soft, smooth mouthfeel you can enjoy at any hour. Its praise is unmatched: it is acclaimed as "green gold."

Caturra: A Natural Bourbon Mutation

Caturra is a natural mutation of Arabica Bourbon, discovered in Brazil in 1937. The plant is smaller and more compact than Bourbon; it inherits Bourbon's lineage but with relatively weak disease resistance and higher yields. Though discovered in Brazil, Caturra was never widely cultivated there—it did not suit the conditions. Instead it became hugely popular across Central and South America, with Colombia, Costa Rica, and Nicaragua planting it extensively.

Beyond botany, what about flavor? The higher Caturra grows, the better the quality—and the lower the yield. Lightly roasted, Caturra shows distinct acidic aromatics and overall brightness; with good processing, its sweetness can be outstanding. Its body, however, is thinner than Bourbon's, and its mouthfeel slightly less clean.

Caturra typically bears red cherries, but in a few rare regions yellow Caturra exists—Hawaii cultivates a very small amount.

Catuai: A Hybrid Variety

Catuai is an artificial hybrid of Caturra and Mundo Novo, with good resistance to the elements—particularly wind and rain.

The Catuai tree is short, and its fruit grows more firmly attached, making harvest harder. The fruit comes in red and yellow forms; no flavor superiority has been found between them. In fact, some cuppers find that while yellow-fruit coffee can show good acidity, the cleanliness of its mouthfeel falls short of red-fruit coffee.

Catuai was bred in Brazil and is now widely planted across Central America.

Product Information

Ingredients: House-roasted
Shelf life: 90 days
Net weight: 227g
Packaging: Bulk
Flavor: Aromatic
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: Washed

Santa Rita Estate lies in Colombia's Antioquia Department, in a micro-region adjacent to the Andes. This premium coffee is a collaboration among 9 nearby farms, which still process coffee the traditional way: cherries are hand-picked, washed processed, and laid out on racks to dry in the sun. The Andean environment endows the region with fertile volcanic soil and exceptionally 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, and several accounts describe its arrival:

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

Another says that in 1808, a priest introduced coffee beans to Colombia for the first time from the French Antilles via Venezuela; one version of this account has Colombia's first seeds entering through the Santander Department from Venezuela.

A third points to the earliest written record of coffee cultivation in Colombia: the Spanish missionary Jose Gumilla, in his book "The Illustrated Orinoca," described his missionary work along both banks of the Meta River in 1730 and mentioned local coffee plantations. By 1787, other missionaries had spread coffee to other parts of Colombia.

Brewing Recommendations

For hand-poured Colombian Santa Rita: use 15g of coffee at a medium grind (small Fuji ghost-tooth burr, setting #4) in a V60 dripper with water at 88-89°C. Pour 30g of water for a 27-second bloom, then pour to 105g and stop. When the coffee bed has drained halfway, continue pouring slowly to 225g, avoiding the final tail. The water-to-coffee ratio is 1:15, with total extraction of 2:00.

Flavor Profile

Flavor: Sugarcane, clean, medium body

FrontStreet Coffee Recommendation

If Colombia's balanced, silky character is what you love, FrontStreet Coffee's Brazilian selections offer a closely related pleasure. The FrontStreet Brazil Cerrado Red Bourbon is a classic single origin from one of Brazil's best-known quality regions: roasted medium, it pours round and full with aromas of creamed peanut, toast, caramel, and hazelnut, gentle acidity, and only a light, pleasant bitterness—wonderful as a pour-over and equally capable in a moka pot, espresso SOE, siphon, or French press.

The FrontStreet Brazil Queen Estate Yellow Bourbon goes further: grown in Mogiana near South Minas on fertile red volcanic soil, this rare Yellow Bourbon—a natural mutation of Red Bourbon with cleaner fruit character—reveals a sugarcane sweetness no other origin quite matches, along with fruit and chocolate notes, whether hand-poured, moka-brewed, or run through a home espresso machine. Both make fine companions to any balanced, medium-roast Colombian on your shelf.

FrontStreet Coffee is a roastery based in Guangzhou. The shop is small but the bean selection is broad, covering both famous names and rare finds, and online ordering is available as well.