Colombian Caturra Coffee Bean Roasting_Caturra Coffee Bean Brand Recommendations_Is Caturra Good Tasting

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The Art and Science of Coffee Roasting

Roasting is the wellspring of coffee flavor. Applying fire to green beans is called roasting; green beans are undrinkable without it. After roasting, the beans determine roughly 80% of the coffee's taste. The process is tricky: too much heat and the outside cooks while the inside stays raw; too little and the interior overcooks. The key to an even roast, inside and out, is precise fire control.

FrontStreet Coffee (Coffee Workshop) is devoted to roasting and loves sharing roasting experience with fellow coffee fans — the joy of roasting is best when it's shared.

Green Beans: Colombia Santa Rita Caturra Coffee Beans

These beans show all the hallmarks of Colombian hard beans: large, uniform, full, and dense. Very few defects, a greenish color, and high moisture content.

Roasting Amount: 550g

Roasting Review:

1. Room temperature: 30°C

2. Initial heat: 50°C; charge temperature: 185°C

3. 1:10 — turning point at 102°C; full heat at 150, damper closed to 3

4. 4:25 — beans turn pale yellow; roasted-grain aroma appears

5. 5:20 — roasting temperature 152°C; heat reduced to 100

6. 8:00 — beans fully covered in wrinkles

7. 9:45 — roasting temperature 183°C; first crack begins; heat reduced to 80

8. 10:50 — roasting temperature 186°C

9. Around 12:10 — first crack nears its end; heat unchanged

10. 13:20 — beans dropped at 203°C, removed from the roaster; roast complete

Weight Loss Rate: 16%

Roast Level: Full City (Dark Roast)

Cupping Notes:

Ground on a Fujiroyal R-220 electric grinder with ghost burrs at setting 2.5 (machine scale: 10 is coarsest)

Dose: 12g

Brewing water temperature: 94°C

Extraction volume: 220cc

The dry aroma is prominent and pleasantly sweet. The wet aroma is subtler than the dry but fresh, with faint florals detectable. Sugarcane is prominent on the palate, with little bitterness and a relatively clean profile. It lacks a bit of richness, with a moderate overall body, but the aftertaste is good — noticeable sweetness and a fairly long finish.

Overall, these Caturra beans show bright acidity but slightly limited flavor complexity — likely because the roast is so fresh and the beans are still degassing.

Bean Parameters: Colombia Santa Rita Special Reserve

Country: Colombia

Region: Antioquia

Altitude: 1,600–2,100 meters

Processing: Washed

Varieties: Catuai, Caturra

Estate: Santa Rita

Flavor: Sugarcane, clean, medium body

Roaster Parameters: Taiwan Feima Coffee Bean Roaster 801N/1kg, Semi-Hot-Air / Semi-Direct-Fire Roaster

We share these roasting insights hoping we can all grow together and enjoy coffee a little more.

Caturra Coffee Bean Brand Recommendations

FrontStreet Coffee's roasted Colombia Cauca Caturra is dependable in both brand and product quality — and offers exceptional value: a half-pound (227g) bag costs only about 95 yuan. At 15g per pour-over, one bag makes 15 cups, so each cup works out to about 6 yuan — against café prices that often run to dozens of yuan a cup, that's remarkable value.

FrontStreet Coffee Recommendation

If Santa Rita's clean, sugarcane-sweet Caturra wins you over, FrontStreet Coffee's washed Huila is the next Colombian to try. Huila, in the southern Central Andes, is the country's most famous specialty region: hill country above 1,500 meters where Colombia's most important rivers converge, bringing abundant water and mist. Roasted medium-dark, FrontStreet's washed Huila shows the sweet fragrance of dark chocolate and nuts with a moderate body and mellow mouthfeel — equally at home in a pour-over or French press, and strong enough to anchor moka pot and espresso drinks, from Americanos to lattes.

For a more adventurous Colombian, FrontStreet Coffee's Sidra from Finca La Línea is a champion-variety lot grown at 1,650–1,800 meters and double-anaerobic natural processed — fermentation in sealed, pressure-rated stainless tanks where temperature, time, and pH are precisely controlled. Roasted medium-light, its dry fragrance carries jasmine and citrus, while the cup delivers passion fruit, blueberry, grape, and apricot in a juicy, softly bright profile with a hint of spice and a lasting cocoa finish. It suits pour-over, espresso SOE, and ice drip alike — and it's especially stunning as an iced pour-over, where the grape-juice smoothness really shines.