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

FrontStreet Coffee - Caturra Variety Introduction

For more professional coffee knowledge and information about coffee beans, please follow Coffee Workshop (WeChat public account: cafe_style)

Among the determining factors for a good cup of coffee, 70% comes from the internal quality of the beans. The key to bean quality lies in the variety. Good varieties grow, blossom, and bear fruit in suitable microclimate environments. After harvest, they undergo appropriate post-processing (washed/natural/honey/semi-washed, etc.), which creates excellent beans. This explains why, in the same producing region with the same processing method, Gesha is more expensive than Caturra.

What makes Arabica coffee so special? There's no doubt about the answer—it has the best flavor profile. The fruits produced by Arabica coffee plants contain more subtle flavors. Its varieties are widely distributed and clearly defined, creating coffee with distinctive appearance and style. Most Arabica varieties are genetic mutations or hybrids of two parent Arabica varieties.

Caturra is a natural variant of the Arabica Bourbon variety, discovered in Brazil in 1937. Its plant is shorter and more compact than Bourbon. While inheriting Bourbon's lineage, it has relatively weak disease resistance but higher yields than Bourbon. Although discovered in Brazil, Caturra is not well-suited for growing there, so it wasn't widely cultivated in Brazil. Instead, it became popular throughout Central and South America, with extensive cultivation in countries like Colombia, Costa Rica, and Nicaragua.

However, when coffee prices soared in the 1970s, farmers switched to Caturra to increase yields. With vigorous promotion by authorities in Brazil and Colombia, the results were fruitful. Farmers' acceptance of Caturra meant a major transformation in cultivation techniques. Brazil and Colombia adopted high-yield, high-density sun cultivation methods. By 1990, one million hectares could harvest 14 million bags of coffee beans, increasing production capacity by 60%. No wonder Caturra, with its high productivity and quality, has become the variety relied upon by coffee-producing countries today.

Similar in appearance to Bourbon, Caturra is difficult to distinguish. The curved end of Caturra beans is slightly more pronounced than Bourbon's, with a round and slender appearance being its characteristic feature. Colombia's double anaerobic Caturra has chocolate flavor notes.

Knowledge Point

Arabica is one of the two very important varieties in the commercial coffee industry, with the other important variety being Robusta.

In summary: FrontStreet Coffee is a coffee research establishment dedicated to sharing coffee knowledge with everyone. Our unreserved sharing aims to help more friends fall in love with coffee. Additionally, we hold three low-discount coffee events every month because FrontStreet Coffee wants to let more friends enjoy the best coffee at the lowest possible price. This has been our mission for the past 6 years!

Important Notice :

前街咖啡 FrontStreet Coffee has moved to new addredd:

FrontStreet Coffee Address: 315,Donghua East Road,GuangZhou

Tel:020 38364473