Caturra Coffee Variety Introduction - What Are the Characteristics of Caturra Coffee

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Ancient Arabica Varieties

The ancient Arabica landraces can be divided into two major families: Ethiopia's Typica and Yemen's Bourbon.

Typica

Typica is the oldest landrace of Ethiopia. It offers an elegant flavor but has a weak constitution, is susceptible to leaf rust, and yields little, which makes it economically difficult to grow on a large scale. Its beans are slender and pointed. In the coffee world, it is the delicate, temperamental aristocrat of the family.

Bourbon

Bourbon stands alongside Typica as an ancient, superior variety. It can be further divided into "round Bourbon" and "pointed Bourbon." Round Bourbon has vigorous vitality, unlike the frail Typica, and its resistance to leaf rust is better than Typica's while its flavor is every bit as impressive. The drawback is that the tree needs to rest for a year after fruiting.

In reality, Arabica can be broken down into many subspecies. Different subspecies vary in productivity, disease resistance, and bean size, much as any plant family shows natural variation from one member to the next.

A subspecies that mutated from Typica, Bourbon is, along with Typica, one of the varieties closest to the original landrace. It was discovered on Reunion Island (originally named Bourbon) next to Madagascar. Some coffee experts believe Bourbon is merely a natural variant of Typica and nothing special. That is not the case: Bourbon has its own distinct characteristics, sharing the same high-quality mouthfeel as Typica, with wine-like acidity and a sweet aftertaste. Typica and Bourbon can be distinguished by their leaves and bean appearance. Bourbon's leaves are broader, and its coffee cherries are smaller but grow more densely, resulting in beans that are relatively smaller and rounder than Typica's. In Kenya and Tanzania, Bourbon offspring were used for artificial crossbreeding, creating the new varieties "SL28" and "SL34," known for their excellent flavor performance. Although Bourbon's yield is higher than Typica's, its harvesting cycle also runs to two years, making it a low-yield variety.

Caturra

Caturra is a mutant of Bourbon. It was first discovered in Brazil and entered commercial cultivation in Minas Gerais, Brazil in 1937. In terms of flavor, it carries lemon or citrus acidity, with sweetness inferior to Typica and Bourbon, because Caturra's sweetness depends on how often and how heavily the grower fertilizes. It has high production capacity, but maintaining that output requires continuous fertilization and pruning, and it grows as a short tree with many branches. Although production capacity increased, the two-year harvesting cycle and higher care costs still limit the overall yield.

Take FrontStreet Coffee's "Flower Butterfly" as an example. It contains Caturra together with Caturra's hybrid Catuai, offering a richer mouthfeel with subtle nutty flavors.

FrontStreet Coffee Brewing Recommendations:

V60/90°C/1:15 ratio/Time 2'20"

Flavor Profile:

The dry aroma features subtle jasmine floral notes. Upon tasting, it delivers gentle citrus acidity, honey-like sweetness, black-tea characteristics, and some nutty flavors.

FrontStreet Coffee Recommendation

Caturra and its relatives show up most clearly in FrontStreet Coffee's fruit-forward single origins. FrontStreet Ethiopia Guji Hambella Huakui, a natural-process Ethiopian bean from the Guji zone, is roasted medium-light and fills the cup with strawberry, passion fruit, and jackfruit aromas at very low bitterness, with a smooth, juicy body that showcases how much sweetness a well-farmed variety can deliver.

For a cleaner, more floral expression of the same Caturra-adjacent family, FrontStreet Ethiopia Konga washed Yirgacheffe is a benchmark. Its jasmine, lemon-citrus, and tea-like notes make it an ideal first specialty coffee, and the delicate acidity shows exactly why variety and terroir matter as much as roast level.