Yellow Catuai | Single varietal coffee from El Quetzal

Collection: Yellow Catuai | Single varietal coffee from El Quetzal

Our Yellow Catuaí has become a favourite: sweet, fruity and floral, hitting all the highlights of El Quetzal. The yellow varietals present differently from a traditional red Brazilian origin, benefiting from our terroir and the unique mutation that ripens to gold rather than red.

What is Yellow Catuaí?

Yellow Catuaí is a compact, high-yield Arabica developed by crossing Mundo Novo and Caturra. The yellow designation is not a marketing flourish — it is a genuine mutation that ripens to gold rather than red, and it behaves differently in the cup than the red Catuaí more commonly grown in Brazil.

Its reputation is as a workhorse: reliable, productive, rarely the varietal a farm leads with. Grown carelessly that reputation is deserved. Grown at altitude, picked at full ripeness and washed with care, Yellow Catuaí becomes something else entirely.

Washed Yellow Catuaí

Every Yellow Catuaí lot we sell is fully washed. Cherry is depulped the day it is picked, fermented under controlled conditions and washed clean before drying, which is what produces the clarity and the floral lift — a natural or honey process would trade those for body and fruit.

Washing also makes the lot predictable, which matters more than it sounds for a varietal with this reputation. You get the same cup profile from sack to sack across the harvest.

How our Yellow Catuaí tastes

Sweet and clean, with soft stone fruit, a floral lift and enough body to hold up to milk. It is more restrained than our Geisha and more approachable than our Pacamara — a coffee that rewards attention without demanding it.

Why Matagalpa changes this varietal

Three things at El Quetzal Coffee Co. do the work. Elevation slows the cherry's development, concentrating sugars. Volcanic soil and steady rainfall remove the stress that flattens flavour in lowland Catuaí. And the large day-to-night temperature swing in these mountains extends maturation, which is where the acidity and floral character come from.

Every lot is dry-milled by our own family mill, so what reaches you is traceable to the parcel it grew on rather than blended into an anonymous regional lot.

Who this coffee is for

Roasters: a dependable single origin that holds its character from light through medium, and a sensible way to introduce customers to Nicaraguan coffee without the price of a rare varietal. Washed Yellow Catuaí green coffee runs from a 150 g sample to a 69 kg sack.

Home brewers: forgiving across brew methods. It will not punish a slightly coarse grind or a rushed pour the way a delicate washed lot can. Try it roasted, as a light roast.

Read more on why Yellow Catuaí deserves a place on your bar →

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