Single Origin Coffee Bean Varieties and Characteristics: Does Caturra Coffee Really Have Chocolate Flavor?

FrontStreet Coffee - Caturra Variety Introduction

Among the factors that decide whether a cup of coffee is good, roughly 70% comes from the intrinsic quality of the bean, and the key to that quality lies in the variety. A fine variety grows, blossoms and bears fruit in a suitable microclimate, then receives appropriate post-harvest treatment, whether washed, natural, honey or semi-washed, and the result is an excellent bean. This explains why, in the same producing region and using the same processing method, Gesha commands a higher price than Caturra.

What makes Arabica coffee so special? There is no doubt about the answer: its flavour. The cherries produced by Arabica plants carry more subtle notes, and its varieties are widely distributed and clearly defined, giving coffee a distinctive appearance and style. Most Arabica varieties are either mutations of, or hybrids between, two parent Arabica varieties.

Caturra is a natural variant of the Arabica Bourbon variety, discovered in Brazil in 1937. The plant is shorter and more compact than Bourbon. It carries Bourbon's lineage, has relatively weak disease resistance, yet out-yields Bourbon. Although it was first found in Brazil, Caturra is not particularly well suited to growing there, which is why it never spread widely in the country. Instead it became popular right across Central and South America, and is now extensively cultivated in Colombia, Costa Rica and Nicaragua.

When coffee prices soared in the 1970s, however, farmers switched to Caturra in order to raise their yields. With vigorous promotion by the authorities in Brazil and Colombia, the results were fruitful. Growers' acceptance of Caturra brought a major change in cultivation technique. Brazil and Colombia adopted high-yield, high-density sun-grown methods, and by 1990 a single million hectares could harvest 14 million bags of coffee, lifting production capacity by 60%. It is little wonder that Caturra, offering both productivity and quality, has become a variety that coffee-producing countries rely on today.

Caturra looks much like Bourbon and is difficult to tell apart from it. The curved end of a Caturra bean is slightly more pronounced than Bourbon's, and its round, slender shape is its signature feature. Colombia's double anaerobic Caturra carries chocolate notes.

Knowledge Point

Arabica is one of the two commercially important coffee species, the other being Robusta.

FrontStreet Coffee Recommendation

If this look at variety has sharpened your curiosity, FrontStreet Coffee's own Gesha selection is the natural next step. The FrontStreet Panama Esmeralda Red Label Gesha is planted between 1,600 and 1,800 metres, and every batch is cupped above 90 points, with each lot drawn from a single plot such as Jaramillo so that buyers can chase the finer flavour differences between batches. The FrontStreet Esmeralda Green Label Gesha, sold under the Private Collection name, blends lots from several plots instead and concentrates on the signature high-altitude Gesha character at a much friendlier price.

For a gentler introduction, the FrontStreet Boquete Gesha from Panama is an entry-level Gesha that still delivers the classic Panamanian orange-blossom and honey sweetness, an oolong-tea texture and a layered, delicate fruit acidity. Those who lean towards the Ethiopian side of the family can try the FrontStreet Grana Gesha, a natural-processed coffee from the border of Kochere and Gelana Abaya, roasted medium-light, which shows bright citrus acidity, an elegant ginger-flower aroma and the full sweetness of ripe fruit.

Gesha is a medium-light, floral and fruit-forward coffee with a hard, dense bean that tends to sink and clog the dripper, so FrontStreet suggests grinding fine enough that 78% passes a Chinese standard No. 20 sieve, roughly the texture of caster sugar, and brewing at 91 degrees Celsius. A 15g dose in a small Hario V60 at a 1:16 ratio works well: bloom with 30g of water for 30 seconds, pour in stages to 125g, then continue to 225g, for a total extraction of about 2 minutes 10 seconds to 2 minutes 20 seconds.