Purple Caturra Coffee Beans

For a long time, there was a strange phenomenon in the coffee industry: those who grew coffee and those who drank it were entirely separate groups, which seemed unbelievable in countries where agriculture is a cornerstone of the economy.

Today, after several waves of transformation in the coffee industry, this situation has gradually changed. To achieve better development, coffee farmers must first make the transition from simply growing coffee to also drinking it—not in the sense of exporting back to domestic markets, but by learning more, such as cupping techniques, to improve the quality of their beans. The recent outstanding performance of Colombia’s Montebeltran Estate reflects the effectiveness of this coffee strategy.

The Montebeltran Estate is located on the winding mountain roads of Vereda La Torcola in Pitalito. Run by owner Rodrigo Sanchez Valencia, the coffee farm traces its roots back to his grandfather. Perched atop a hill, the estate spans approximately 18 hectares and is equipped with comprehensive processing facilities, including a wet mill and drying equipment.

In 2002, Rodrigo participated in a local coffee training program that taught cupping to the children of coffee producers. Prior to this, neither he nor his family had ever considered the flavor profiles of coffee. By learning to distinguish different coffee flavors, he and his father and grandfather were able to draw connections between their farming practices and the attributes of the coffee revealed during cupping.

At the same time, Rodrigo began researching cupping competitions. Through these competitions, he gained insight into the varying quality of coffee from different plots within his own estate. He realized that although his farm had won a cupping competition one year, it failed to maintain strong results afterward. This led him to explore how to consistently produce high-quality coffee. His investigation into the trees planted at Montebeltran led him to discover various varieties his grandfather had planted in the 1980s—and it was then that Purple Caturra was identified and distinguished.

This coffee is of the Purple Caturra variety, a mutation of Caturra. It originated as a rare natural variant of Red Caturra. Purple Caturra is characterized by copper-purple young leaves at the tips of the plants and deep purple fruit when ripe. At the time, Rodrigo identified 26 coffee trees out of over 20,000 on his farm that exhibited traits of Purple Caturra. Purple Caturra is a variety that survived Colombia’s leaf rust outbreak in 2012, known for its unique flavor, high disease resistance, and elevated Brix levels.

The Montebeltran Estate is renowned for its scientific post-harvest processing methods and expertise with rare coffee varieties. In particular, fermentation during post-processing requires precise control of variables such as temperature, humidity, sweetness, sugar content, and oxygen levels to meet the growing demands and standards for flavor and mouthfeel.

This batch of coffee was processed using passionfruit yeast anaerobic washed method. The Montebeltran Estate first measures the Brix level of the harvested coffee beans and determines the appropriate processing method based on the indicated sugar content. Coffee with a Brix level of 24–27 is used for washed processing. First, the skin and pulp of the coffee cherry are removed, then the beans are fermented with passionfruit. The high sugar content provides an excellent environment for microbial growth, cultivating strains that are then left to ferment anaerobically with the parchment coffee in sealed barrels.

It’s always necessary to learn new things. The reason coffee tastes better and better is the result of the efforts of these coffee professionals—and, of course, the active feedback from us consumers. What remains, in the end, is coffee of superior quality.