Ka'u Natural Yellow Caturra
$22.50 was $25.00
This variant is currently sold out
It’s not nice to play favorites among children, but we can’t help the way we feel about our Natural Yellow Caturra. After all, it took one-and-a-half maddening years to turn this variety into exceptional coffee.
So how good is it? In Coffee Review’s Nov. 2010 ranking of natural coffees, our babies took the top score of 95 points.
From Coffee Review:
“Complex and balanced flavor and aroma: orange-toned citrus, cherry, cedary aromatic wood, a hint of baking spice. The acidity is extraordinary: deep, powerful yet roundly rich and sweet. The mouthfeel is full and syrupy, the finish long and fruit-saturated. … This is a coffee that demonstrates the potential of both dried-in-the-fruit coffees and Ka’u coffees.”
Since that stellar turn in Coffee Review, these beans were used by 2011 U.S. Barista Champion Pete Licata in his winning espresso. Wine Spectator also profiled them in Dec. 2011.
We like Natural Yellow Caturra because it’s especially distinct for a Hawaiian coffee. Generally, beans from the islands are known for being mild, soft and sweet. This coffee, by contrast, is very intense: Grind it, and the aroma of tropical fruits fills the room.
It’s also unusual for a natural-dried coffee. Instead of the simple grape and berry flavors that often result from this processing method, we taste enhanced characteristics of Yellow Caturra: vanilla, lemon and passionfruit. The result is a strikingly good pairing of processing method and coffee variety.
For these reasons, Natural Yellow Caturra has turned into one of our most popular coffees. And with only a few hundred trees on our farm, it’s also one of our most limited.
