This Caturra variety from Gustavo and Adriana is, in many ways, exactly what we look for out of Colombian Caturras. It is a very elegant representation of terroir and variety. In the cup we find very high candy-like sweetness, a dynamic pomegranate, currant, almost tropical complexity, and a very long and satisfyingly ripe finish.
Caturra
La Cartagena, Urrao, Antioquia
1,950 masl
November, 2020
Hand picked at peak ripeness. Floated to further remove defects. Depulped. Wet fermented for 48 hours in tanks. Dried on raised beds until moisture content reaches between 10%-11%.
Gustavo and Adriana moved to La Cartagena—a sub-municipality in Urrao—to escape the armed conflict and violence that arose in their original home of Caicedo. Gustavo, along with their son, David, has been growing coffee on and off for the past number of years. However, seeing the higher and more stable prices being paid to their neighbors for quality coffee they decided to give growing coffee another try. This Caturra variety is the second lot we purchased from them this harvest, and it is also exceptional.
Caturra is a natural mutation of the Bourbon variety. It was discovered on a plantation in the state of Minas Gerais in Brazil sometime between 1915 and 1918. Today, it is one of the most economically important coffees in Central America, to the extent that it is often used as a benchmark against which new cultivars are tested. In Colombia, Caturra was thought to represent nearly half of the country’s production before a government-sponsored program beginning in 2008 incentivized renovation of over three billion coffee trees with the leaf rust resistant Castillo variety (which has Caturra parentage).
The cost of getting a coffee from cherry to beverage varies enormously depending on its place of origin and the location of its consumption. The inclusion of price transparency is a starting point to inform broader conversation around the true costs of production and the sustainability of specialty coffee as a whole.