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Coffee variety
Catuai Coffee Beans
Catuai is a Mundo Novo-Caturra cross bred in Brazil in the 1940s and now the most planted variety in the country. It is not a lottery ticket the way a Gesha is — it is dependably sweet, medium-bodied and chocolate-leaning, which is exactly why so much of Brazil grows it.
Yellow and Red are the same variety
The colour refers to the cherry when ripe, not to the cup. Red Catuai is the more widely planted of the two; Yellow ripens slightly earlier and is harder to judge for ripeness by eye, which is a real cost to a producer picking selectively. Both trees are short — the Caturra parent contributed the dwarfing — which is what made Catuai practical to farm at scale and pick by hand on slopes.
Both of ours, and what separates them
Fazenda São Luiz in Cerrado Mineiro at 1,450 masl, Yellow Catuai, pulped natural. Finca Recreio in Vale da Grama at 1,290 masl, Red Catuai, natural, sun-dried on the farm. The variety is effectively constant across the pair; what differs is 160 metres of altitude and the drying decision. The Yellow's pulped-natural drying keeps a little more definition, while the Red's full natural leans further into sweetness and body — which is a cleaner illustration of what processing does than most side-by-sides, because so little else is different.
What to expect in the cup
Milk chocolate, nuts, a soft caramel sweetness, medium body and low-to-moderate acidity. It is the profile most people picture when they picture coffee, done properly rather than done cheaply — and it is the reason Catuai lots make good espresso and good everyday filter, while a delicate high-grown variety often makes only one of the two.
Past lots
Sold out, and kept here because the sourcing record is the point — these are lots we have actually roasted this way.
