From Gesha to Caturra: Coffee Variety Deep Dive

In this episode, I dive deep into the world of coffee varietals and share my eye-opening experience tasting seven different varieties from the same farm. I explored how different coffee varietals—including Javanika, Yellow Caturra, Catamaran, Lorena, Pacamara, and Gesha—each express unique flavor profiles, from chocolatey and nutty to fruity, floral, and vibrant. Through this experiment, I discovered that not all coffee tastes the same, even when grown on the same farm with similar processing methods. I challenge the common approach of simply brewing coffee the same way every day without truly understanding what we're drinking.

By listening to this episode, you'll learn why coffee varietals matter and how they significantly impact the flavors in your cup. I break down the concept using a simple apple analogy—just as there are Gala, Fuji, and Granny Smith apples, coffee has its own diverse varieties that deserve exploration. Whether you're a casual coffee drinker or an aspiring enthusiast, this episode will inspire you to push beyond your comfort zone, expand your coffee knowledge, and truly appreciate the journey of discovery that comes with each cup.

Chapters

• 0:00 Intro
• 1:32 The Experiment Begins: Tasting Seven Different Varietals
• 3:40 Yellow Caturra: When Coffee Gets Exciting
• 4:35 Exploring Catamaran, Lorena, and Pacamara
• 5:33 Gesha: The Holy Grail of Coffee
• 6:11 Breaking Out of Coffee Ruts
• 8:17 The Power of Pushing Ourselves to Learn More
• 10:04 The Apple Analogy: Beyond Just "Coffee"
• 12:18 Peeling Back the Layers of Coffee Knowledge

Transcript

[00:00:02] One of the things that we don't talk about as much, or at least I don't, is the variety. What is it? What are they? Are they different? Does it matter where it's grown? Do they taste the same from region to region, country to country? What does that mean to you?

[00:01:02] This importer has a unique situation where I can actually buy a pound or 500 grams of these coffees, which to me is a lot. Even just by buying one bag, you can analyze the coffees easily with just this amount of coffee. One brew recipe, and that's one of the things that we have to remember when we're drinking coffee. Do all the varietals from different countries taste the same? Those are some of the questions that we should start asking ourselves.

[00:02:18] For instance, when I embarked on this journey, I started with this coffee right here. What they say the varietal is is Javanika, 100% Arabica. They shorten it to Java. I don't actually know what Java or Javanika is. This is actually the first time I've heard about it, but this is what they say it is. I tasted it. It tasted like a typical Central South American coffee, one that didn't have too much fruit on it. It was chocolatey, somewhat nutty, very low acidity. I was like, okay, that's a good way to get into it, right?

[00:03:16] And then I tasted another one. I don't know what the actual varietal is, but we know that it's washed. So it's different than the other one. This one tasted like a typical diner coffee. Nothing's wrong with that. Everybody likes what they like, right?

[00:03:40] And then as I kept going, I wanted to make sure that I was tasting the coffees for what they are. Then I went to the next one, something very familiar but still different: washed Yellow Caturra. So Yellow Caturra, I know that different colors and all that. When I had this one, it started to open up. It was fruity. It was lively. It was more like an exciting coffee. That's the way I look at it. This is something that gets me truly excited. Interesting. Same farm, different varietals, tasting completely different things. Interesting from the exact same farm, right?

[00:04:35] Then I started to embark on different ones. This right here is a Catamaran. Can't remember which one this one was, but it was interesting. It was different but similar to what I was tasting. And then the Lorena. I believe the Lorena was very fruity, vibrant, had a different aftertaste on it. It talked to me in different ways and I liked it.

[00:05:07] Then of course, I went with something else that I'm familiar with: the Pacamara. It was juicy, lively, little acidity on it to let you know that it's there. Very good coffee, good representation of Pacamara.

[00:05:33] And then of course, the last one, which I think is probably everybody's holy grail to an extent, which is Gesha. It was extremely floral on the smell, on the taste. There's some acidity, but it wasn't offensive, and it was fruit forward. Can't really decipher what the fruit was.

[00:06:10] So these are the coffees. These are the varietals I tasted. One, two, three, four, five, six, seven. Seven coffees. I learned a lot from this experiment, and I'm just barely getting started. There's more tasks, more things I want to do. I'll roast them differently. I believe all these are lightly roasted coffees. So I'm going to put them through their paces as a medium and a dark roast and all that good stuff.

[00:06:47] But what I'm saying here is that one of the things we do is we just kind of do the same thing. A lot of times when I do things, I just pick the V60, I do a simple recipe, I drink my coffee, throw away the water, and I rinse and repeat. Not really trying to grow. I'm not really trying to understand and expand my mind, which is perfectly fine. You don't have to be a world class coffee aficionado that does everything and anything coffee, right?

[00:07:21] But one thing that I have learned throughout this whole experiment is that we can push ourselves even more, and also learn more about the coffee. As we go down our journey, it's a way for us to enjoy it even more because it's not about the destination. It's about being in that journey majority of the time and understanding what we're doing, why we're doing it and all that stuff. Same thing here.

[00:08:17] So I'm not on my high horse, but it did actually open me up to actually try to understand coffee varieties, what it really means, how they taste. I would love to start getting into different coffees from different regions, different countries and tasting this Yellow Caturra with another Yellow Caturra to see if those flavor profiles are similar. And how does the soil actually change and affect the coffee, especially if it's wash processed similarly? I think there's a correlation there.

[00:09:00] I think there's a reason to explore more than what we're used to doing each and every time that we drink our coffee because like you and me, we all go through our ruts. We all go through the things that we don't like about things. We do that and understand that these are just different things that we can do to understand the things that we're trying to do. So it gets us in a place to really understand and not be as naive to situations, even though we do think we know so much about coffee, about brewing techniques, about what works for the majority of people or at least more importantly what works for us.

[00:09:33] As I sit here and just drink these coffees, analyze and drink one cup after another, I learned so much from one cup. Enough for me to talk to you about it. And as we go through this whole process, hopefully I'll get a chance to talk to the person, the importer. I'll take it very simple.

[00:10:10] When we think of an apple, we think of it as an apple, right? But in truth, that's a very lazy way to think about things. It's an identifier, but that's just the core of what we're trying to do here. Really, what we're trying to do here is understand exactly what that particular apple is and how it's tasting to us.

[00:10:40] There's so many different apples in the world. There's Galas, there's Fuji, there's Granny Smith, there's Red Delicious, there's Opal, there's all these different types of apples out there that I haven't talked about or even know of or something that they just made. At their core, they taste like an apple. It's just like these right here. At their core, they taste like coffee.

[00:11:22] In truth, when we start to peel the layers and stay in it and engage ourselves and really try to understand all the things that we're trying to do as it relates to coffee or understanding things in general, we're going beyond the surface. We're going beyond what we think that we know this thing to be. With coffee, it gives us a different perspective rather than "this is a good coffee." These are the notes that we're tasting. Probably the easier notes that we're tasting is because of the soil and the actual variety that we're drinking. Probably more so the variety tastes the way that they taste, but the uniqueness and the way that it's actually produced, those are different things that we can actually taste in the coffee. Those are what we're looking at and trying to understand.

[00:12:22] And as we peel the layers and push ourselves, we're going to be in a better place where it's like, hey, I understand the things that we're trying to do and getting there. Better to explain to others and to ourselves that, hey, this is coffee, but this is coffee of this style, this class, this taste. This soil, the way that the sun hits it, how long it takes to actually produce, and what that actually means to us when we drink that coffee as an espresso or as a filter. It doesn't matter. But it gives us a better understanding.

[00:13:24] We're starting to pick up on things that we like about this particular varietal and seeing how it's different from region to region, from roaster to roaster. And then we're just expanding our minds. So open up ourselves even more. I'm going to do that and let's just go for a ride. This is Oke at Everyday Beans, just talking. Talk to you later. Bye.