Honey Caturron 2025: The Wild Mutation That Changed Huila

The Farm: Finca Villa Betulia

Finca Villa Betulia sits high in the mountains of Acevedo, Huila, at 1,550 meters above sea level. The farm is home to over 20 rare and exceptional coffee varieties — a living library of genetic diversity that few farms in Colombia can match. This is not a monoculture operation. It's a curated collection of coffee's most interesting expressions, each nurtured and studied for its unique potential.

Huila needs no introduction to anyone who follows specialty coffee. Colombia's most celebrated producing department, where the Andes split into three mountain ranges and create countless microclimates. Over half a million Colombian families dedicate their livelihoods to coffee production, and Huila consistently produces the country's highest-scoring lots. Finca Villa Betulia is among the department's crown jewels.

The Producer: Luis Anibal Calderon

Luis Anibal Calderon is somewhat of a local celebrity among Colombian coffee farmers, and for good reason. His dedication to preserving his father's legacy and producing high-quality coffee in Huila at Finca Villa Betulia is an inspiring story of family, terroir, and relentless curiosity. Where most farms commit to a handful of proven varieties, Luis has spent years collecting and cultivating rare genetic material — building a farm that serves as both a productive estate and a living research station.

This tradition is now passing down to Luis's son, Yeison, who is taking up the mantle of managing the estate alongside his father. The generational handoff is more than sentimental — it ensures that decades of accumulated knowledge about Huila's microclimates, fermentation techniques, and varietal selection continue to evolve rather than retire.

The Caturron Varietal: A Wild Mutation

Finca Villa Betulia is one of a handful of farms that cultivates the incredibly rare and recently discovered Caturron coffee variety. It's a wild mutation of Caturra — not a lab-created cross, not a selective breeding program, but a spontaneous genetic shift that occurred in the field and was identified by farmers who noticed something different about certain plants.

What makes Caturron remarkable is not just its flavor. The variety offers strong resistance to leaf rust — the fungal disease (Hemileia vastatrix) that has devastated coffee farms across Latin America — and a high yield. Most varieties that taste exceptional are either low-yielding, disease-susceptible, or both. Caturron breaks that trade-off. Further research is still required to fully understand Caturron's background and potential, but the flavor profile is clear.

The Process: Honey Anaerobic Co-Fermentation with Spices

The processing of this Caturron lot is where Luis Calderon's experimentation reaches its highest expression. It's a honey process — meaning the mucilage stays partially on the bean during drying — but it's layered with two stages of anaerobic fermentation and a co-fermentation with a carefully crafted blend of spices.

The process begins with select ripe red cherries, which are separated by flotation — a density test that removes defect cherries and ensures only the densest, most sugar-rich fruit proceeds. These cherries then undergo a first 50-hour anaerobic fermentation in sealed tanks, still as whole cherries.

Why Honey Processing Matters

The cup profile of honey-processed coffees sits strongly in the middle of washed and natural processed coffees. Honey processing generally yields a fruity cup — but honeys don't usually have the fruit-bomb effect or the volatility of some naturals. In contrast to washed coffees, honeys often result in a rounder acidity and a more complex mouthfeel.

There's also an environmental dimension. Honey processing is far less water-intensive than washed processing. In a region like Huila, where water conservation is increasingly critical, this matters. Luis Calderon's choice of honey processing is both a cup-quality decision and a sustainability decision.

Cup Profile: 89.5 Points and Seven Notes

A cupping score of 89.5 places this lot firmly in the "excellent" range — nearly breaking into the "outstanding" tier that begins at 90. The cupping was performed in July 2025, and the flavor profile is a study in complexity: seven distinct notes that span fruit, herb, and spice.

Black cherry leads, followed by mango and honey — the sweetness that gives the process its name. Then the cup pivots. Mint and cardamom introduce an herbal, aromatic quality that reflects the spice co-fermentation. The finish lingers with ginger and lemongrass, adding a warm, citrus-herbal tail that keeps the cup interesting long after the last sip.

This is what spice co-fermentation achieves. The spices don't dominate — they integrate. The microorganisms work harmoniously with the spice blend, enhancing the coffee with its distinctive and vibrant flavor without losing the inherent qualities of the Caturron variety. It's a collaboration between cherry, microbe, and spice, orchestrated by a producer who knows exactly what he's doing.

Three Coffees, Three Philosophies

With this article, our Coffee Stories series now covers three coffees that represent three completely different approaches to specialty coffee. The Jaguar Honey from Costa Rica is tradition — 138 years of mill experience. The Purple Caturra from Finca Monteblanco is innovation — controlled co-fermentation with tropical fruits. The Honey Caturron from Finca Villa Betulia is exploration — a producer working with a wild mutation that barely anyone else grows, using a spice-infused dual fermentation that no one else does.

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Bottom Line

The 2025 Honey Caturron from Finca Villa Betulia is a coffee that exists because one farmer was curious enough to cultivate a wild mutation that most of the industry hasn't even heard of yet. Luis Anibal Calderon didn't follow the playbook. He wrote his own. And the result — 89.5 points, seven layered flavor notes, a dual-stage spice co-fermentation — is what happens when a producer with 20+ varieties on his farm decides to push one of the rarest to its absolute limit.

The Caturron variety is still being studied. Its full potential is unknown. But if this lot is any indication, the future of coffee might not come from a breeding lab — it might come from a farm in Huila where a local celebrity noticed a wild mutation, decided to keep it, and spent years figuring out how to ferment it with spices. That's not just coffee. That's agricultural art.

Source: Genuine Origin (genuineorigin.com) · Cupping data from July 2025 assessment · Harvest window March–June (Colombia main harvest + mitaca).