What is the Maracatu coffee varietal?

Maracatu is a Brazilian cultivar - a hybrid of Maragogype and Catuai developed in Brazil in the late 1990s. It combines Maragogype's characteristic large bean size with Catuai's compact stature and higher yield, making it a more practically manageable plant than the famously oversized Maragogype parent.

The bean size is inherited from Maragogype, though not quite as extreme. In the cup, Maracatu can produce clean, balanced results with good body. It's primarily grown in Brazil and isn't widely known in international specialty markets.

Its main interest is as an example of how breeders have tried to harness Maragogype's visual appeal - those enormous "Elephant Bean" seeds attract genuine attention - in a plant that's actually viable to farm at commercial scale.