Is Catimor Coffee Bean Arabica? Flavor Differences and Taste Description Between Catimor and Typica Coffee Beans

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Catimor coffee beans belong to the Arabica family. Although it contains Robusta genes, because Arabica genes account for a larger proportion, Catimor is classified as an Arabica variety.

The Origin of Catimor

Catimor is a hybrid variety of Timor and Caturra, with strong resistance to leaf rust disease.

Catimor was hybridized in Portugal in 1959 from the rust-resistant Timor and Caturra. Its flavor characteristics include bitterness with some acidity and astringency, often with a salty aftertaste. Due to its low space requirements for cultivation, strong resistance to leaf rust, and high fruit yield, it has become one of the few high-yielding varieties among Arabica coffees.

Additionally, this variety can adapt to different altitude climates. Catimor grown at 600-1000m altitude will have heavier bitterness, with plum-like acidity and astringency as well as herbal flavors, thus it is often used as raw material for instant coffee. However, Catimor coffee beans grown above 1200m altitude have quality comparable to Bourbon, Caturra, and Catuai, featuring plum-like acidity, caramel sweetness, and roasted nut aftertaste.

How is Yunnan's Catimor Coffee?

Although Yunnan coffee had a poor reputation a decade ago, with strong support from the Yunnan government in recent years, more scientific cultivation of coffee trees, and greater attention to coffee bean extraction and drying processes, today's Yunnan Catimor coffee is completely different from before.

The day-night temperature difference formed by high-altitude cultivation, combined with the nutrients from Yunnan's red soil, means today's Yunnan Catimor coffee typically has plum-like acidity, caramel sweetness, nutty aftertaste, and a slight grassy flavor.

This is a unique flavor created by the terroir of the Yunnan growing region. Therefore, among FrontStreet Coffee's signature daily beans, we selected washed Catimor coffee beans from the Baoshan region, grown at 1200m altitude, to represent the Yunnan growing region. After medium roasting and appropriate brewing, it can exhibit plum-like acidity, cantaloupe aroma, and brown sugar tea sweetness.

How is Yunnan's Typica Coffee?

However, FrontStreet Coffee believes that to improve the quality of Yunnan coffee, it's more important to start with changing the varieties. Because in 2013, FrontStreet Coffee began planting Typica varieties on a mountain around 1300m altitude in Lincang, Yunnan.

FrontStreet Coffee chose to plant Typica varieties because it is the oldest member of the Arabica family, with its main characteristic being high cleanliness and good sweetness in flavor expression. When coffee trees were first planted in Yunnan, they were also Typica varieties...

However, later for various reasons, many Typica trees were cut down. Later, because Nestlé took a fancy to this treasure land of Yunnan and introduced the higher-yielding Catimor, Yunnan now mainly grows Catimor varieties.

Due to pure variety genetics and its inherent characteristics of high cleanliness and good sweetness, Typica coffee beans grown in Yunnan have a cleaner mouthfeel and more full-bodied flavors than Catimor coffee beans.

FrontStreet Coffee's own Yunnan Typica uses traditional natural processing. After medium roasting, it can exhibit blackberry-like sweet and sour flavors, soft berry fermentation aroma, brown sugar-like sweetness, and black tea-like aftertaste.

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