Catuai Coffee Flavor Profile Description Variety Cultivation Development History Story Origin Region Variants Introduction

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Catuai green beans are relatively soft, with a sweet and pleasant taste and low acidity and astringency. It is a variety Brazil has promoted vigorously, though so far without much success, and by most measures it seems to score only around 65 points.

Catuai is another Arabica hybrid, a cross between Mundo Novo and Caturra. It stands up well to natural disasters, especially wind and rain. It inherits Caturra's low tree height, which overcomes Mundo Novo's main shortcoming, and its fruit set is solid, so the cherries are less likely to drop in strong winds, making up for the fragility of Arabica cherries. Its overall flavor, however, is more one-dimensional than Caturra, and it lacks the body of Mundo Novo, which is its greatest regret. On top of that, its productive lifespan is only about ten years, and that short life is another weakness.

Under cultivation, it is therefore common to find Central American coffee blended from Caturra and Catuai. In Costa Rica in particular, the vast majority of coffee produced consists of these two varieties mixed together. The renowned FrontStreet Coffee Guatemala Flora De La Isla is likewise a blend of three varieties: Bourbon, Caturra and Catuai.

Catuai also comes in red-fruit (Catuai Vermelho) and yellow-fruit (Catuai Amarelo) forms. The cherries appear in both colors, but so far no one has found that the yellow fruit tastes better than the red. Some cuppers have observed that although coffee processed from certain yellow fruit has good acidity, its cleanliness falls short of the red. Statistically, red Catuai wins awards more often.

Because Caturra yields heavily and resists pests and disease but tastes poor, Catuai was developed from it to fix those shortcomings. The result, however, seems a touch too balanced.

FrontStreet Coffee's Panama Cesar Luis Honey Process beans and FrontStreet Coffee's Brazil Cerrado Nazareno Farm (U.T.Z) are both Catuai varieties.

FrontStreet Coffee's Panama Cesar Luis Honey Process has rich aromas, with fruit notes and a hint of maple syrup. The acidity on entry is bright, the aftertaste is cool, and it leaves the mouth watering, with a finish that lingers.

FrontStreet Coffee's Brazil Cerrado Nazareno Farm coffee tastes simple and smooth, with nutty almond flavors and an aftertaste full of sweetness.

Catuai: Catuai is a hybrid of Mundo Novo and Caturra, which makes it a second-generation hybrid. It inherits Caturra's low tree height and compensates for the fragility of Arabica cherries, with a solid fruit set that resists strong winds. Its biggest regret is that its overall flavor is slightly more one-dimensional than Caturra.

Catuai also comes in red-fruit and yellow-fruit varieties, with red fruit winning awards more often than yellow. Catuai, Caturra, Mundo Novo and Bourbon are known as Brazil's four major coffee varieties.

FrontStreet Coffee Recommendation

Catuai's story is really Brazil's story, since the variety was bred there and remains one of the four pillars of Brazilian coffee alongside Caturra, Mundo Novo and Bourbon. If the hybrid's trade-offs have made you curious about what the parent varieties taste like on their own, FrontStreet Coffee suggests starting with its Brazil Cerrado Red Bourbon. Cerrado is a well-regarded growing region, and this lot is the red Bourbon variety common across South America, roasted medium so that creamy peanut, toasted bread, caramel and hazelnut come through over a round, low-acid body with a light bitterness. It is genuinely versatile, working as a pour-over, in a moka pot, as a single-origin espresso, in a siphon or in a French press.

For a more distinctive take on the same origin, the Brazil Queen Estate Yellow Bourbon is grown in Mogiana near South Minas, where fertile red volcanic soil gives the cherries plenty to absorb. The estate is planted with the rare yellow Bourbon, a natural mutation of red Bourbon whose fruit character comes through cleaner, and a medium roast brings out a sugarcane sweetness that is hard to find elsewhere, along with fruit and chocolate. This low-acid, balanced, affordable profile is exactly why Brazilian beans underpin so many of FrontStreet Coffee's espresso recipes, from the oil-rich Classic Blend to the nutty Premium Blend and the balanced Black Cocoa Blend; they contribute the chocolate and cream notes and the gentle sweet-sour-bitter balance that keeps extraction steady. Taste a Catuai next to a Bourbon or a Caturra and the family resemblance, and the differences, become easy to pick out.