Arara is a Brazilian coffee variety that's become increasingly common in specialty coffee over the last couple of decades. It produces yellow cherries, large beans and good yields, while also showing strong resistance to coffee leaf rust.
It wasn't created through a neat, planned breeding cross. The variety came from a natural hybridisation in Brazil, after researchers spotted a few unusual plants growing among Obatã. Those plants were selected and propagated over several generations, eventually becoming the Arara we know today.
How Arara was discovered
The original Arara plants were found in a field of Obatã in the 1980s. They immediately stood out. Most of the surrounding coffee had red cherries, while these plants produced yellow fruit. They were also vigorous, productive and showed resistance to coffee leaf rust.
There is some uncertainty about exactly what crossed with the Obatã. Brazilian coffee researchers have described the other parent as either Yellow Catuaí or Yellow Icatu. The important part is that the cross happened naturally, rather than being made deliberately in a breeding programme.
The unusual plants were separated from the rest of the crop and used to produce new generations. Researchers selected plants with the most useful combination of growth, productivity, fruit and disease resistance and continued the process over several generations.
Fundação Procafé eventually released Arara commercially in 2012. By then, more than 15 years of evaluation had gone into the selection.
What's in the genetics?
Arara has a slightly messy family tree, which is quite common with naturally occurring coffee hybrids.
Its confirmed starting point is Obatã, itself a Sarchimor-derived variety with Catuaí in its background. The second parent has been variously identified as Yellow Catuaí or Yellow Icatu, and Brazilian sources don't treat that part of the pedigree as completely settled.
That uncertainty doesn't make the variety any less useful. Arara ended up with a combination of characteristics that Brazilian farmers have found attractive: compact growth, high productivity, large fruit, late maturation and strong resistance to coffee leaf rust.
Growing Arara
Arara is a relatively short, vigorous coffee plant. Its compact structure makes it easier to manage and harvest than taller varieties, particularly where coffee is still picked by hand.
Productivity is one of its biggest strengths. Trials and commercial plantings have consistently shown high yields, and the large fruits and seeds are another characteristic that helped attract growers.
Arara also matures relatively late. That can be useful on a farm because it allows producers to spread harvesting across a longer period rather than having every variety ready at the same time.
Disease resistance is another reason for its popularity. Arara has shown high resistance to coffee leaf rust and tolerance to Pseudomonas. Brazilian researchers have also reported good tolerance to Phoma leaf spot.
It's worth being careful with the word “resistant”, though. Disease pressure changes between farms and regions, and resistance doesn't mean that a plant is completely unaffected under every set of conditions.
Where is Arara grown?
Arara originated in Brazil and is particularly associated with Minas Gerais and the country's other major Arabica-growing regions.
It has become increasingly popular since the 2010s. In one widely reported example, Fundação Procafé said that around 60% of its seed requests were for Arara. Later reports also estimated that tens of millions of Arara seedlings were being planted in Brazil.
That doesn't mean Arara has replaced Catuaí or other established Brazilian varieties. It does show how quickly interest grew once farmers had seen the combination of productivity, disease resistance and coffee quality for themselves.
What does Arara taste like?
Arara has developed a reputation for producing good-quality coffee alongside its agronomic advantages. That's important because high yield and good cup quality don't always arrive together.
Brazilian competition results have demonstrated just how good the variety can be. In the 2019 BSCA Aroma competition, an Arara from Fazenda Sertãozinho in Botelhos, Minas Gerais, won the competition with a score of 92.50 points.
There isn't one flavour profile that defines every Arara, though. Farm, altitude, harvest conditions and processing all have an effect.
In many Brazilian lots, you'll find a sweet cup with good body and relatively restrained acidity. Chocolate, caramel, nuts and ripe fruit are all possible, particularly in carefully processed coffees.
The best examples can be considerably more expressive than the typical description suggests. That's one reason Arara has attracted so much attention from specialty producers: the variety can deliver high production without automatically giving up cup quality.
Arara and late maturation
One of the more useful characteristics of Arara is its late maturation.
That gives producers another way to manage harvest timing. Instead of having every coffee tree reach peak ripeness at once, later-maturing varieties can extend the picking season and make it easier to concentrate labour on the cherries that are ready.
Brazilian research into Arara's fruit development has also looked closely at how dry matter and nutrients accumulate during the reproductive cycle. That work is useful for understanding how the variety should be managed and fertilised, rather than assuming that every coffee plant follows the same pattern.
Why farmers are interested
Arara's appeal is fairly straightforward once you put its characteristics together.
It's compact enough to manage easily, produces large yellow cherries, yields well, matures late and has strong resistance to coffee leaf rust. And unlike some highly productive commercial varieties, it has also shown a real ability to produce specialty-grade coffee.
That combination has made Arara one of the more interesting recent additions to Brazil's coffee landscape.
Arara is still evolving
Even after the original Arara was established, researchers continued to find plants that differed from the standard type.
Brazilian trials identified segregating plants with different fruit colours and growth habits, including red-fruited and taller plants. Some of these were selected for further testing as potential new Arara lines.
It's a useful reminder that the work doesn't necessarily stop when a variety gets a name. Brazilian breeding programmes are still selecting and evaluating plants to find combinations that work better for particular farms and production systems.
Quick varietal facts
Varietal: Arara
Species: Coffea arabica
Origin: Brazil
Development: Natural hybridisation involving Obatã and probably Yellow Catuaí or Yellow Icatu
Commercial release: 2012
Growth habit: Short/compact and vigorous
Fruit colour: Yellow
Fruit size: Large
Bean size: Large
Maturation: Late
Yield: High
Disease resistance: High resistance to coffee leaf rust; tolerance to Pseudomonas and Phoma
Key growing region: Brazil, particularly Minas Gerais
Competition result: 92.50 points and first place in the 2019 BSCA Aroma competition
Typical cup profile: Sweet and full-bodied, often with chocolate, caramel, nut and ripe-fruit character; highly dependent on farm and processing
Further reading
- Perfect Daily Grind: The Arara Variety
- Embrapa: Nutrient Dynamics and Fruit Development of Arara
- Fundação Procafé: Arara Technical Information
- BSCA: 2019 Aroma Competition Results
Interested in other Brazilian coffee varieties? Read our guides to Catuaí, Mundo Novo, and Rubi.