Bourbon, Caturra & Sidra: A Plain-English Guide to the Coffee Varieties in Your Cup
Bourbon, Caturra & Sidra: A Plain-English Guide to the Coffee Varieties in Your Cup
Coffee has varietals the way wine has grape varieties. And like wine, they matter.
The Bourbon in your glass of Burgundy is not the same as the Cabernet in a Napa red — different genetics, different flavours, different behaviour in different soils. Coffee works the same way. The variety of plant matters as much as the altitude, the soil, the processing method, and the roast.
At Rascal Coffee, we grow and source three varieties: Bourbon, Caturra, and Bourbon Sidra. Here's what they are, where they came from, and why they're in your cup.
Bourbon
Bourbon is one of the oldest coffee varieties in the world.
The story starts in Yemen — the original home of cultivated Arabica coffee. In the 18th century, French traders brought Yemeni Arabica to the island of Réunion, then called Bourbon. Over time, the plants on the island evolved separately from the original Yemeni stock, producing a distinct variety that inherited the island's name.
When Bourbon was brought to Latin America — first to Brazil in the mid-1800s, then spreading north — it found ideal conditions. Guatemala's volcanic highlands turned out to be one of its best homes.
What Bourbon tastes like: Rich. Sweet. Balanced. It has a rounded body with a natural sweetness that doesn't require any help from milk or sugar. Depending on where it's grown, you'll find notes of caramel, chocolate, stone fruit, or red berries. In Antigua volcanic soil, Bourbon tends toward the chocolatey and stone-fruity end — milk chocolate, plum, peach.
Why it's important: Bourbon is a lower-yield variety, which is part of why many farms have replaced it with higher-producing hybrids. But it remains one of the most prized varieties in specialty coffee because of that flavour complexity. When it's well-grown and carefully processed, it's difficult to beat.
Where we grow it: Finca Filadelfia, Antigua, Guatemala. Altitude: ~1,580 metres.
Caturra
Caturra is a natural mutation of Bourbon, discovered in Minas Gerais, Brazil, in the 1930s.
The mutation produced a shorter, more compact plant — easier to manage at high density, requiring less shade, producing more fruit per plant than its parent variety. That made it commercially attractive. By the 1950s and 1960s, Caturra had spread across Central America and become one of the dominant varieties in the region.
What Caturra tastes like: Brighter than Bourbon. More acidic — in the specialty coffee sense, which means lively and citrus-forward, not sharp or sour. Where Bourbon is the chocolate and stone fruit end of the spectrum, Caturra is lemon, lime, tangerine, green apple. At altitude, that acidity becomes refined — precise, not aggressive.
Why it's paired with Bourbon: The two varieties complement each other. Bourbon brings body and sweetness. Caturra brings brightness and acidity. Together, they produce a balanced cup that has more complexity than either would alone. This is why the Filadelfia Bourbon & Caturra is a blend of both, not just one.
Where we grow it: Finca Filadelfia, alongside the Bourbon. Same altitude, same volcanic soil, same washed processing.
Bourbon Sidra
This is the unusual one.
Bourbon Sidra — also written H1 or Bourbon x Sidra — is a crossbreed developed at the research station Centro Nacional de Investigaciones de Café (Cenicafé) in Colombia. It's a hybrid of the Bourbon variety and the Sidra variety, with the goal of combining Bourbon's flavour complexity with a cup profile distinctive enough to stand on its own.
The Sidra variety itself is rare. It's believed to be a natural mutation of Bourbon discovered in Ecuador. It produces an extremely fruit-forward cup — tropical, floral, almost fermented in its intensity when naturally processed. Coffee geeks seek it out. You won't find it in supermarkets.
What Bourbon Sidra tastes like: The variety is intensely expressive. When naturally processed — left to dry on the fruit for 30 or more days — it develops tropical fruit, stone fruit, florals, and a sweetness that feels almost like dessert. It's not a subtle coffee. If Filadelfia Bourbon & Caturra is a well-structured, composed cup, the Santa Irene Bourbon Sidra Natural is the louder, stranger sibling.
Why it's rare: Bourbon Sidra is a micro-lot variety. It's produced in small quantities. Finca Santa Irene, where we source it, had around 50 kilograms of this specific lot remaining when we bought it. When it's gone, it's gone. The next harvest will be different — different processing batch, different weather, different year.
Where we source it: Finca Santa Irene, Guatemala. Naturally processed. Available in 50g and 150g sizes.
How variety affects brewing
One practical note: different varieties behave differently in different brew methods.
Bourbon & Caturra (Filadelfia): Versatile. Works beautifully as filter — pour-over, V60, Chemex. Also pulls well as espresso if you want sweetness without aggression. The balanced profile means it adapts to most methods without needing careful adjustment.
Bourbon Sidra (Santa Irene): This one rewards slow filter brewing — V60, Chemex, AeroPress with a longer steep. The natural process adds body and sweetness that benefits from lower-temperature water (88–92°C) and a longer extraction. Rushing it through an espresso machine at high pressure and temperature tends to make it too intense.
Try them
Finca Filadelfia Bourbon & Caturra Washed → Best Coffee of Antigua 2026. Our hero. Start here.
Finca Santa Irene Bourbon Sidra Natural → Rare micro-lot. Limited stock. Buy it while it exists.