Brazil Yellow Catuai

Yellow Catuai is an engineered answer to a farming problem, not a landrace. Researchers at Brazil’s Instituto Agronomico de Campinas crossed Mundo Novo with Caturra Amarelo to pair Mundo Novo’s vigor with Caturra’s compact size. The cross was made in 1949 and the result was released in 1972 as a semi-dwarf tree that can be planted densely and picked easily. The yellow cherry color is inherited from the Caturra Amarelo parent, and the same source cautions that cherry color moves the cup less than climate, altitude and processing do. The tradeoff is disease: that source lists very high susceptibility to leaf rust.

The three Coffee Review lots behind the scores are soft and sweet rather than loud. Ritual’s Cerrado pulped natural reads honeysuckle-like flowers, apple, caramel and walnut, and finishes at 91. Equator’s Bela Vista microlot from Dom Vicoso adds peach and bergamot-like citrus with milk chocolate and the highest acidity score of the three. The Veloso Estate natural leans toward cocoa nib, tea rose and dried apple with a buttery mouthfeel.

What the data cannot say is that Yellow Catuai is better than Red Catuai or any other cultivar. All three lots are processed, farmed and roasted differently, and only a handful of reviews stand behind the averages. Treat the profile as a fair picture of what good Brazilian microlots of this variety can taste like: balanced, gently bright, and sweet.