Yellow Cattura A Rare Variety Coffee in SEA | Roaming For Roasts

Coffee has diverse variety that we probably haven’t heard of. Many of us are only familiar with Arabica and Robusta which classify as the species but there’s also somethin called cultivars. It’s what I’ll be talking about today and specifically Yellow Cattura, a cultivar from Arabica that was first found in Brazil.

Cultivars refer to varieties of coffee that are produced because of techniques in growing the coffee. The species with many varieties are definitely Arabica while there are also varieties that are produced by hybrid between arabica and robusta coffee. Among many that you might heard of is probably Bourbon, Blue Mountain, Yirgacheffe and even Geisha.

Trust me, I first didn’t know about all these until I went down the rabbit hole of specialty coffee.

All these varieties produces different types of flavor, plant characteristics ,as well as its own unique profile. The more you know these type of classifications, it would be easier to find the coffee that you actually enjoy and like. Now, if you’re only referring coffee based on its location, it’s time to mention the variety when ordering your coffee beans.

The other day, I was getting a coffee from Trawas, a hilly region in east java that is also growing coffee beans. Uniquely the beans that grows in the area is known as Yellow Cattura variety. This variety isn’t actually a high yield as well as easily susceptible in coffee leaf rust making farmers rarely cultivate this variety. This cultivar also shares similar characteristic to Bourbon which Cattura comes from. The varieties play role in also affecting the characteristic of tasting note from the coffee in which Cattura often has refreshing grape and black tea notes. So, knowing your preferred variety might help in choosing the right beans for you other than choosing where the coffee is grown. Personally, Bourbon tastes a lot better than Cattura but again, all these are preferences.

_{reference for paragraph above : https://varieties.worldcoffeeresearch.org/varieties/caturra
reference 2nd : https://www.slurp.coffee/en/blogi/articles/about-coffee/coffee-varieties/}

Anyhow, in short, variety of coffee may also affect the taste of your cup of joe.

For 100g of Trawas coffee, it costs $5. It is quite reasonable price considering more popular varities usually priced quite higher. At the same time since the location is a lot closer, also affects the pricing too. Had I bought it from another province, it would have not been that cheap. I was specially asking it to be grind for phin filter since I am running out of my v60 filters. While Phin filter has quite a limitation, it does the job when you want to drink a quality coffee without having to go cafe.

Even for me, when I want to drink iced coffee, I can always make condensed milk coffee or something called Cha Pe Sua Da. Even though it’s not as concentrated as espresso for latte based drinks, it really taste similar to whenever I order milk coffee or spanish latte from the coffee shop. Usually for me, 100g would last about 4-5 days depending on how often I drink the coffee since usually medium roast and brewed with phin filter would only mean that I drink the coffee like I drink water. So, it lasts a lot lesser than if I were to use a more concentrated way to brew the coffee.

This trawas coffee is just how I quite like it. Lately, I enjoy coffee with pomelo taste and fresh fruity aroma. This coffee makes a nice night/morning coffee rather than midday coffee. One think I noticed is also adding the milk isn’t a great idea of this Yellow Cattura variety, generally bourbon is also not my most favorite when it comes to adding milk into the coffee. So, this type of coffee is actually best for americano and just filtered coffee.