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Caturra Coffee Beans

Caturra coffee is a single-gene variant of Bourbon, discovered in Brazil in the 1950s. Caturra beans are best cultivated from 700 meters at low altitude up to 1750 meters at high altitude. The higher the altitude, the better the flavor, with a refreshing fruit acidity and a light sweetness.

Research on Serving Temperature and Flavor

In 2017, the journal "Food Chemistry" published a research paper titled "Influence of serving temperature on flavor perception and release of Bourbon Caturra coffee."

As usual, let's get straight to the key points.

Research Methods

Two methods were used to evaluate the coffee.

1. Cupping to evaluate coffee flavor

The sensory analysis panel consisted of 8 trained members, who evaluated the coffee flavor at 6 different temperatures: 31°C, 37°C, 44°C, 50°C, 56°C and 62°C.

The sensory vocabulary used for evaluation included overall flavor intensity; the basic tastes bitter, sweet and sour; and the flavor notes tobacco, roasted, nutty and chocolate.

2. Dynamic headspace gas chromatography-mass spectrometry to analyze volatile aromatic components in coffee

The specific principles of this method can be found in the book "Coffee Flavor Chemistry."

Key Findings

1. Sweetness at 44°C

Cupped at 44°C, Caturra coffee is at its sweetest. Combined with the analysis results in the paper, at that temperature the coffee contains high levels of pyrazine, and the corresponding flavor descriptions for pyrazine are sweet, corn-like and nutty.

2. Higher temperatures increase bitterness

When the coffee temperature is 50°C or higher, the content of alkylpyrazines increases, making the coffee more bitter with roasted flavors, and the overall flavor intensity is higher as well.

3. Lower temperatures reveal non-roasted flavors

When the serving temperature is below 44°C, Caturra coffee shows more "non-roasted" type flavors, such as sour, sweet and tobacco.

Colombia Huila Finca La Cabaña Washed Caturra

In recent years there have been more and more micro green coffee merchants specializing in a specific country. Besides the major specialty coffee countries like Brazil, Panama, Costa Rica, Ethiopia, Guatemala and Indonesia, merchants specializing in Colombia, East Timor, India, Thailand and Myanmar have gradually appeared on the market as well. These merchants may carry fewer varieties than the large green coffee merchants, but they have closer relationships with producers and will actually fly to the origin to visit estates and cup the beans. Their prices are perhaps not as attractive as the large merchants', but relatively speaking, you are less likely to run into problems.

This batch is an item from C Company, a green coffee merchant specializing in Colombia. According to the merchant's flavor description, this washed coffee has jasmine floral notes, chocolate, caramel, appropriate acidity and texture, and the variety is Caturra. According to Michael Sheridan's Colombia Caturra vs Castillo experiment presented at the SCAA annual meeting the year before last, when 32 Caturra coffees were cupped, the most common flavor descriptions were moderate acidity and texture, chocolate, caramel sweetness, and herbal, citrus and cherry aromas. Cupping scores ranged around 82-85 points.

The roast batch was 500g, with a 100g sample first taken to estimate the defect ratio. The green beans had full moisture content, a firm texture and a fresh blue-green color. Defective beans came to about 4g, mostly broken beans, sheep-hoof shells and some underdeveloped immature seeds. There were no fully black beans, foreign objects or mold. According to the green coffee merchant's notice, this batch was packaged in small quantities, so some visible defective beans were picked out during packaging.

The bean-in temperature was set at 170°C, the temperature return point came at about one minute and 99.5°C, and the heating rate was normal. Because of the high moisture content, dehydration took more time, with the goal of dropping the beans at the end of first crack. Roasting time was about 9 minutes and 10 seconds, with a drop temperature of 210°C. After roasting, the weight was about 406g.

After resting for 24 hours before brewing, 15g of coffee after grinding revealed a very classic Colombian aroma of acidity and sweetness: apple, cinnamon, nuts, caramel. Brewing with 210cc of 92°C water extracted about 170cc. The wet aroma had spiced apple notes. On tasting, there was a rich jasmine fragrance, with flavors between peach and apple. The fruit acidity was not strong but noticeable, with high sweetness and a chocolate aftertaste. Using 20g ground to extract 50cc of espresso, the jasmine floral note was not obvious but still noticeable. Because it was only 24 hours after roasting, though, there was still some harshness that had not fully dissipated. The chocolate sweetness in the aftertaste was quite good. It reminded me of a Huila EP Senor Ninfa Perdomo Sosa (70% caturra + 30% castillo) from green coffee merchant P last year. The difference was in the softness and detail of the acidity.

This is a versatile bean that can be used for pour-over as a single origin, or blended with beans from other regions for blends, though it is somewhat monotonous for SOE, and the crema texture cannot be described as delicate.

Brand Recommendations for Caturra Coffee Beans

FrontStreet Coffee's roasted Colombia Cauca Caturra coffee beans are solid on both brand and quality, and the cost-performance ratio is extremely high. Caturra being a single-gene variant of Bourbon, it is a good excuse to taste the Bourbon family side by side, since the cup here stays clean and controlled with a gentle, sweet acidity rather than anything sharp.

FrontStreet Coffee Recommendation

Since Caturra is a single-gene variant of Bourbon, the quickest way to understand it is to taste other Bourbon-family beans next to it. The FrontStreet Cerrado Red Bourbon is the direct cousin: a Red Bourbon from Cerrado given the traditional pulped natural treatment, with a soft, rounded body and aromas of cream, peanut, toast, caramel and hazelnut, low in acid and only lightly bitter. The FrontStreet Queen's Estate Yellow Bourbon then shows the mutation from the other direction, a rarer Yellow Bourbon from Mogiana whose fruit reads cleaner and carries a sugarcane-like clarity alongside fruit and chocolate notes.