main coffee varietals
Let’s dive into the nerdy world of coffee varietals and explore the history of the three most common ones in Colombia nowadays: Caturra, Colombia, and Castillo.
CATURRA
For decades, Colombian coffee was nearly synonymous with Caturra. This varietal shaped Colombia’s global reputation for “mild” washed Arabica producing clean, sweet, and balanced coffees with medium body and bright acidity.
Caturra is a natural mutation of Bourbon, discovered in Minas Gerais, Brazil, in the 1910s, and introduced in Colombia in the 1950s, where it quickly became the dominant varietal due to its high yield potential and good cup profile.
In the 1980s, leaf rust led to a national shift toward rust-resistant varietals. This shift was financed and led by the Colombian Coffee Growers Federation (FNC) and its research arm, Cenicafé.
Today in 2025, the FNC reports that 85% of Colombian coffee is made up of rust-resistant varieties. This massive and fast varietal shift (the country has more than 840,000 hectares of coffee land) from Caturra to those rust-resistant varietals was made possible by the FNC’s well-organized and financed extension service, which deployed agronomists and technicians across all coffee-growing regions to provide both financial and technical support. The FNC assisted producers in uprooting susceptible plants and replanting with the new resistant variety.
Let's review those Colombian rust-resistant varietals.
COLOMBIA
The first varietal bred for rust-resistance was the Colombia varietal introduced in 1982. The shift to Colombia varietal helped farmers avoid devastating losses and maintain productivity even under high rust pressure.
CASTILLO
After a few years, the Colombia varietal began to show its limitations. Rust is a fungus capable of adapting to its plant host and mutating accordingly. In response, Cenicafé developed the Castillo varietal, officially released in 2005. Built on the foundation of the Colombia varietal, Castillo was created by selecting elite lines of Colombia to further improve rust resistance, productivity, and adaptability. Castillo is not a single varietal, but rather a family of seven regional selections, each tailored to specific climates and terroirs. In Huila, the most common type is Castillo Tambo.
But once again, pressure from climate change and the adaptability of the fungus pushed Cenicafé to continue searching for more resilient strains. In 2024, they announced Castillo 2.0, a new generation made up of 40 different coffee lines, each selected for specific traits aimed at enhancing rust resistance, increasing productivity, and improving cup quality.
TABI & CENICAFÉ
Beyond the series of Caturra × Timor hybrids, Cenicafé has developed two other notable hybrids incorporating the Timor Hybrid as a parent: Tabi and Cenicafé 1.
Tabi, introduced in 2002, is a cross between Typica, Bourbon, and the Timor Hybrid. It was developed to combine resistance to coffee leaf rust with the high cup quality associated with Typica and Bourbon.
Cénicafé 1, released in 2016, was designed with a focus on resistance to both coffee leaf rust and Coffee Berry Disease (CBD)—a significant threat in Africa that has not yet been detected in the Americas. It is also suitable for high-density planting, and produces a high percentage of supremo-grade beans.
Needless to say, when we get our hands on the remaining 15% of varietals—whether it's Pink Bourbon, Gesha, Chiroso, Papayo, or others—we’re talking about the crème de la crème of Colombian coffee. These are exceptional lots that deserve to be cherished, not only for their quality but also for the high agronomic risk producers take to grow them.
FOOD FOR THOUGHT
Colombia’s ability to sustain high coffee production is undeniable, but it raises a deeper question: are varietal shifts merely a short-term fix for rust and the broader spectrum of diseases affecting coffee?
Rust is an ever-evolving organism, constantly adapting to its host. Relying solely on rust-resistant bred varietals means committing to an endless cycle of breeding — a strategy that addresses the symptoms, but not the root cause. Rust thrives where there is weakness and a lack of resilience. So instead of continually replacing varietals with slightly more resistant ones, what if we rethought how we grow coffee altogether? What if we focused on building healthier, more diverse agroecosystems — ones where coffee trees are less vulnerable not just to rust, but to a whole range of diseases?