Arabica coffee varieties: Castillo Castillo Introduction

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Coffee varieties: introduction to Castillo Castillo

Castillo, or castillo variety, or castillo cultivar, is a coffee variety developed in 2005 by the Colombian Coffee Research Institute to enhance plant disease resistance. It is currently the main cultivated variety in Colombia.

The genetic source of castillo

Castillo is the result of five generations of cross breeding between Timor and caturra.

Timor is the result of natural hybridization between Arabica and Robusta.

Caturra is the result of natural mutation of bourbon species.

Timor plants are tall and resistant to leaf rust.

The plant of Caturra is short and the yield is higher than that of tin pickup and bourbon, which inherits the high quality flavor of bourbon, the plant spacing is small, and the plant density per unit area is denser. Susceptible to leaf rust.

Castillo inherited the dwarf plant and high yield of caturra, as well as the leaf rust resistance gene of Timor.

Castillo is the result of research and development of disease-resistant varieties pursued by cenicafe.

Naming and Research and Development of castillo

Castillo, developed by Cenicafe, named after the researcher Jaime Castillo, the patent belongs to Cenicafe.

The Coffee Research Center (Colombia research institute center) was established in 1938 and operated by the famous Colombian coffee organization FNC (Union of Coffee growers). It is mainly engaged in coffee production, disease resistance and so on. The history of FNC can be traced back to 1927. For more information, please refer to the blog article "narino, a boutique coffee producing area".

In the last 50 years of the last century, caturra gradually replaced the ancient Colombian coffee variety and became the main cultivated variety in Colombia. In 1982, the Coffee Research Center released Colombia, and in 1983, leaf rust was first discovered in Colombia, and Colombian species with disease resistance were promoted.

In 2005, based on the research of Colombia species, cenicafe launched castillo species. FNC strongly supported the application of new products and promoted the cultivation of new products through a package of agricultural and financial policies. Just a decade later, by 2015, articles had pointed out that catillo accounted for 40% of all coffee acreage in Colombia. Among them, the outbreak of leaf rust from 2008 to 2010 also contributed to the popularity of castillo.

Castillo vs. Caturra

The vigorous promotion of Castillo has caused great controversy between coffee farmers and roasters, often focusing on the Robusta gene of the new castillo and their in-cup performance compared with caturra.

In December 2014 and January 2015, world-renowned coffee organizations and research institutions, together with well-known coffee companies, conducted a sensory test on the cup test performance of castillo and caturra. The analysis was conducted on 25 farms in the Narinho region of Colombia, which provided castillo and caturra. As for the test results, generally speaking, castillo performed well in the cup.