Introduction to the Chiroso variety, the champion of the best varietals group in the 2024 BOP.

In recent years, the coffee market has seen an increase in demand for some new coffee varieties. In some large competitions, some contestants choose to use new varieties for the competition, which makes the variety become popular overnight, such as the recently popular Sidra.

Recently, Panama held the 28th Best of Panama competition in 2024 (Bast Of Panama, referred to as BOP). In this competition, it is divided into three categories: the washed Geisha group, the natural Geisha group, and the varietals group.

Among them, it is worth noting that in the 2024 varietals group, the one that won the championship with 94.1 points is the Chiroso from the Black Moon Farm. The Chiroso has begun to enter everyone’s field of vision in recent two years. In the 2023 BOP competition, the Chiroso from the Black Moon Farm also won the second place in the varietals group with 91.88 points at that time.

It is understood that the Chiroso variety originally came from Colombia. Although it is from Colombia, it is not a variety cultivated by the National Coffee Research Center of Colombia. This variety was originally discovered in the city of Urrao in the Antioquia province in northern Colombia. Antioquia province is the birthplace of Colombian coffee, an important coffee producing area, and also the area with the most coffee varieties grown. There are small producers and large estates in this producing area.

Moreover, at the Colombian COE in 2014, the Chiroso won the championship, and the third place and eleventh place were also this variety. Later, it was also introduced and planted in Colombia. Initially, the Chiroso was considered a natural variant of Caturra, but the shape of the cherry fruit of this variety is relatively slender, so it was named Chiroso (Colombian slang, meaning something slightly elongated).

But later, some research institutions found that the Chiroso has no genetic relationship with the Bourbon variety, which also shows that it is not a variant of Caturra. However, these studies found that the Chiroso is related to the local variety in Ethiopia in terms of genes, but it is not yet clear how the local variety in Ethiopia was introduced to Colombia.

In the city of Urrao in Colombia, the coffee is grown at a relatively high altitude with a relatively low temperature. The original reason for growing the Chiroso variety is that it can resist the cold climate and has a high yield. Now, it is highly concerned and praised because of its complex floral fragrance and its rich flavor characteristics. This variety of plants is very similar to Caturra, both having short, light green leaves, and the characteristics of high yield, and are both easily affected by coffee leaf rust. The Chiroso bean shape is rather pointed and long, with obvious floral and fruity tonality, complex acidity, and the industry evaluates its flavor to be similar to Geisha, and its alcohol thickness is better than Geisha. Moreover, thanks to its density, the altitude at which it grows, and the genetics from Ethiopia, it can be baked deeper in the baking process, extending the Maillard stage to increase the sweetness.