Mundo Novo
IAC — a natural hybrid of Bourbon Vermelho and Typica
Tall, vigorous · red fruitMaturation · Medium
The foundation of Brazilian coffee growing: wide adaptation, hardiness, high yield. Around forty per cent of the country’s arabica.
Varieties
The plants themselves.
Brazil grows two cultivated species and dozens of cultivars bred from them. Most were developed here, by Brazilian institutes, for Brazilian conditions — which is part of why the country’s range is as wide as it is.
Two species
Arabica and Canephora.
Coffea arabica
The high-grown species. Finer acidity, more aromatic complexity, more delicate to farm. Nearly every cultivar in the table below descends from a handful of ancestors — which is why Brazilian breeding has spent seventy years widening what arabica can do.
Coffea canephora
Two botanical varieties, Conilon and Robusta, and the distinction matters. Conilon dominates in Espírito Santo; Robusta in Rondônia, where the plants are intervarietal hybrids of both. More body, more structure, and — grown and processed with care — far more in the cup than the species’ reputation suggests.
Arabica cultivars
Arabica cultivars
Catuaí
IAC — Caturra Amarelo × Mundo Novo
Dwarf · red or yellow fruitMaturation · Early, evenVigour, productivity and uniform ripening in a plant short enough for dense modern planting. The red and yellow forms are distinct selections, not a colour variant.
Topázio MG 1190
IAC — Mundo Novo × Catuaí Amarelo, crossed in the 1960s–70s
LowMaturation · Between Catuaí and Mundo NovoGood yield and vigour, and notably it does not decline early after a heavy crop — the failing that limits several older cultivars.
Catiguá MG2
EPAMIG and the Consórcio Pesquisa Café
Low, conical canopy · red fruit, small seedMaturation · IntermediateThe cup cultivar. It stands out in sweetness, acidity, body and flavour in specialty sensory panels, resists the prevailing races of leaf rust, and tolerates moderate drought on less nutrition than the traditional plants.
Arara
Brazilian selection
Low · large yellow fruitMaturation · LateHigh natural resistance to leaf rust and high yield potential. Ripening late is useful in itself: it widens the harvest window rather than crowding it.
Bourbon
Heirloom
The ancestor in the room — parent of the Mundo Novo and Caturra lineages, and so behind most of this table. We have not published cup characteristics for it because we have not yet found a source worth standing behind.
Canephora cultivars
Canephora cultivars
BRS Ouro Preto
Embrapa Rondônia, released 2013
Clonal — fifteen clonesMaturation · IntermediateEmbrapa’s first protected coffee cultivar. Bred to tolerate the western Amazon’s heat, humidity and moderate water deficit; over 120 bags to the hectare in trials, with even ripening and a processing yield above fifty-two per cent.
Ten canephora hybrids
Embrapa Rondônia, released 2019
Robusta × ConilonMaturation · VariousTen cultivars released together to widen the genetic base of coffee growing in the western Amazon, each combining traits of both botanical varieties.
BRS 2299
Embrapa Rondônia with Embrapa Acre, released 2019 — a conilon × robusta hybrid clone
Medium height · sieve 14 · highly resistant to lodgingMaturation · Intermediate, medium uniformityThe most fully documented of the 2019 ten, and the clearest picture anywhere of what an Amazonian canephora actually does. Potential above 110 bags to the hectare; resistant to leaf rust and to nematodes, little susceptible to brown eye spot; released for the western Amazon and north-western Mato Grosso; an architecture that suits mechanised work. On the Fine Robusta tasting protocol Embrapa records it above 70 points, with cereal and herbal attributes — worth reading exactly as written. A denomination of origin describes what a region’s best can reach. A cultivar record describes what one plant reliably delivers, and the two are not the same number.
Conilon
Espírito Santo clonal selections
ClonalMaturation · VariousThe botanical variety behind most of Brazil’s canephora, and the reason Espírito Santo is the country’s second producing state by volume.
Robustas Amazônicos
The first denomination of origin for canephora in the world.
In 2021 Brazil’s national institute of industrial property granted a denomination of origin to Matas de Rondônia — fifteen municipalities in the western Amazon, applied for by Caferon, the regional growers’ association.
It is the first such recognition anywhere for canephora coffee, and the first for canephora produced sustainably, with indigenous growers among its producers. The examination that granted it documents the sensory profile: sweet, chocolate, woody, fruity, spice, root and herbal.
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