Caturra
A naturally occurring dwarf mutation of Bourbon, first identified in Brazil. Its compact growth habit and higher yield made it popular across Central and South America from the mid-20th century onward.
In short
Caturra is a natural mutation of Bourbon that makes the plant grow small and dense. It was found in the Brazilian state of Minas Gerais between 1915 and 1918, and it went on to become the standard variety of Central America for decades.
Its significance is agronomic. A compact tree can be planted far more closely than a tall one, and that single change reshaped how coffee farms were laid out.
What one mutation changed
Sourced
The catalogue describes it as a single-gene mutation that makes the plant grow smaller, a trait it calls dwarfism or compactness. The World Coffee Research catalogue gives a planting density of 5,000 to 6,000 plants per hectare for Caturra, against 3,000 to 4,000 for its tall parent, Bourbon.
Brazil's Instituto Agronômico began selecting from it in 1937. The catalogue notes that it was never officially released in Brazil, but it has become common in Central America. It was introduced to Guatemala in the 1940s, although widespread commercial adoption took another three decades, and it was often used as the benchmark against which new varieties were tested.
Size matters at harvest as well as at planting. Coffee on steep hillsides is picked by hand, cherry by cherry, over several passes. A tree whose fruit is all within reach is quicker and safer to pick than one that has to be bent down or climbed, and it is easier to prune and to spray.
Caturra at a glance
Sourced
| Variable | Typical range | What moving it does |
|---|---|---|
| Stature | Dwarf, compact | |
| Lineage | Natural mutation of Bourbon | |
| Yield potential | Medium | |
| Quality potential at high altitude | Good | |
| Nutrition requirement | High | |
| Coffee leaf rust | Susceptible | |
| Coffee berry disease | Susceptible | |
| Nematodes | Susceptible | |
| First production | Year 3 | A year sooner than Bourbon. |
As listed in the World Coffee Research catalogue.
The cost of planting close
CoffeeHQ explanation
Dense planting produces more coffee from the same land, and it bears a year earlier. It also asks more of the soil. The catalogue rates Caturra's nutrition requirement as high, and a densely planted, heavily fruiting tree that is not fed adequately exhausts itself.
Compact varieties are also associated with the move towards growing coffee in full sun instead of under shade trees. That raised yields and brought environmental and economic costs that are still debated. Caturra did not cause that shift alone, but it made it practical.
Parents, offspring and look-alikes
Sourced
- Bourbon — The tall parent. Similar genetics, with wider spacing, later bearing and a higher quality rating.
- Catuai — Bred from Caturra crossed with Mundo Novo, keeping the compact stature and raising the yield potential.
- Villa Sarchi — A compact variety that the catalogue lists among those related to Caturra.
Why it is being replaced
CoffeeHQ explanation
Caturra has no resistance to coffee leaf rust. When rust epidemics struck Latin America, farms planted with it were badly affected, and much replanting since has used rust-resistant varieties, many of them bred by crossing Caturra with a rust-resistant hybrid. Colombia's Castillo is one of those.
In the cup, Caturra is generally regarded as clean and bright, and the catalogue rates its quality potential as good, a step below Bourbon. As ever, the farm matters more than the name.
What to do next
- Castillo — The rust-resistant variety that replaced much of Colombia's Caturra.
- Coffee from Colombia — A country whose coffee was long defined by Caturra.
- How coffee is produced — Planting, shade and disease in the wider context of farming.
- Become a coffee expert — A structured programme from the plant and its processing to roasting, water and tasting.
Where Caturra is documented in the atlas
Only countries CoffeeHQ has written an entry for, and only where a document it has read names Caturra there. This is not a list of everywhere it is grown.
- Guatemala. With Catimor, nearly half of all plantings on the USDA attaché's 2026 account. Source: Guatemala: Coffee Annual (GT2026-0003).
- Honduras. One of four arabica varieties the USDA attaché's 2025 report names as grown in the country's six main regions. Source: Honduras: Coffee Annual (HO2025-0002).
- Nicaragua. The most widely planted variety, at 72 per cent of the arabica area on the USDA attaché's 2026 account. Source: Nicaragua: Coffee Annual (NU2026-0003).
- Peru. About 20 per cent of the crop in the same report, on the same unstated basis. Source: Peru: Coffee Annual (PE2026-0008).
- Brazil. Found on a plantation in Minas Gerais between 1915 and 1918 and selected at Campinas from 1937. The catalogue adds that it was never officially released in Brazil and became common in Central America instead. Source: Coffee Varieties Catalog: arabica and robusta entries, with the histories of each.
- Colombia. Thought to have been nearly half of Colombia's production, the catalogue says, until a programme begun in 2008 paid for trees to be replaced with Castillo. It gives no source or year for the half. Source: Coffee Varieties Catalog: arabica and robusta entries, with the histories of each.
- Costa Rica. Introduced to Costa Rica from Guatemala, on the catalogue's account, which calls it for decades one of the most economically important coffees in Central America. Source: Coffee Varieties Catalog: arabica and robusta entries, with the histories of each.
- Papua New Guinea. One of the two dwarf varieties the 2017 report lists as in commercial use, the other being Catimor; no share of the area is given. Source: Improving livelihoods of smallholder families through increased productivity of coffee-based farming systems in the highlands of PNG: final report (ASEM/2008/036, FR2017-08).
- Ecuador. Ten per cent of the arabica crop in the same 2018 survey as the 2025 article reports it, behind three other varieties; the survey was not opened. Source: Análisis de la producción y consumo de café en Ecuador.
- Dominican Republic. Alone on 8 per cent of the coffee land in the 2001 inventory and with Typica on 27 per cent; the 2004 paper says growers had been encouraged for twenty years to move from Typica to Caturra. Source: Export Commodity Production and Broad-based Rural Development: Coffee and Cocoa in the Dominican Republic (Policy Research Working Paper 3306).
- Panama. Among the arabica varieties a 2026 chemistry paper sampled in Panama. The paper does not say how much of it is planted. Source: Phenolic Composition, Antioxidant Activity and Caffeine as Chemical Markers for Differentiating Panamanian Coffea arabica and Coffea canephora.
- Jamaica. Grown beside Typica on the St Andrew farm in the same 2023 field study. One farm, not a national share. Source: Coffee Berry Borer, Hypothenemus hampei (Ferrari) (Coleoptera: Curculionidae): Activity and Infestation in the High Mountain and Blue Mountain Regions of Jamaica.
- United States (Hawaii and Puerto Rico). Named among the varieties grown in both Hawaii and Puerto Rico by a 2023 review; no share of the acreage is given for either region. Source: Establishing an integrated pest management program for coffee berry borer (Hypothenemus hampei) in Hawaii and Puerto Rico coffee agroecosystems: achievements and challenges.
- Thailand. Listed with Catimor and Catuai in the specifications of both protected northern names, Kafae Doi Chaang and Kafae Doi Tung; a 2001 paper says the Caturra first introduced took leaf rust. Source: Publication of an application pursuant to Article 50(2)(a) of Regulation (EU) No 1151/2012: single document, Kafae Doi Chaang (2014/C 49/08).
Parent varieties
Learn it as a course
The Coffee Expert lesson Species and varieties covers this ground in order, with exercises you can do at home.