What makes Brazil Yellow Bourbon coffee a specialty pick?

Brazil Yellow Bourbon coffee comes from a genetic mutation of Red Bourbon, and its fruit stays yellow instead of turning red when ripe, a change that happens about 10 percent of the time. Queen Farm in the Mogiana region grows the low-yield, high-quality Yellow Bourbon by hand, and it is backed by the Carvalho Dias family, which has repeatedly won Brazil's COE awards.

Brazil is the largest coffee producer and grows both Arabica and Robusta. Santos coffee is not a growing place but a port city, the name given to beans shipped from there. A medium roast highlights Yellow Bourbon's sweetness, and a V60 three-stage pour-over suits it, along with almost every other brewing method.

Brazilian Yellow Bourbon is often regarded by coffee enthusiasts as a variety with more specialty attributes. It originated from a genetic mutation of Red Bourbon, and its fruit turns yellow rather than red when ripe, with only about a 10% chance of occurrence. Queen Farm in the Mogiana region is the representative Brazilian specialty single-origin bean selected by Front Street. The farm is not large in scale, but it is backed by the Carvalho Dias family, which has repeatedly won Brazil's COE awards, and insists on manual harvesting and growing the low-yield, high-quality Yellow Bourbon. Front Street uses a medium roast to highlight its sweetness, and this bean is also suitable for almost all brewing methods. Below is a complete overview of this Brazilian coffee, from variety characteristics, origin background, and the farm's story to V60 three-stage pour-over parameters and flavor description.

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Brazilian Yellow Bourbon Coffee Beans

Among coffee varieties, Yellow Bourbon is a rather rare one. Usually, the fruit produced by Bourbon turns red when ripe, but after some Red Bourbon undergoes genetic mutation, the fruit does not turn red when ripe and instead remains yellow, so it is called Yellow Bourbon. The probability of Red Bourbon mutating into Yellow Bourbon is about 10%.

What are the characteristics of Yellow Bourbon coffee?

When talking about Yellow Bourbon, one cannot avoid Queen Farm in the Mogiana region. The Yellow Bourbon produced by this farm is one of the representatives selected by Front Street as a Brazilian specialty single-origin bean. Brazil is the world's largest coffee producer, growing both Arabica and Robusta, as well as the Santos coffee beans that everyone often hears about. Here Front Street should clarify that Santos is not a coffee-growing place, but a port city. Brazilian coffee beans are mostly exported through this port, and over time, coffee from the port of Santos came to be called Santos coffee beans. Moreover, "Santos" is the translation used in Hong Kong and Taiwan, and it is actually the same place we call Santos.

With the spread of the specialty coffee concept, origin traceability has become increasingly important, so today place names such as Cerrado and South Minas are gradually becoming familiar to the consumer market.

The Brazilian plateau has flat and open terrain, which is very suitable for large-scale mechanical operations. At present, most Brazilian coffee-producing regions adopt large-farm mechanized cultivation models, and coupled with Brazil's pivotal global output, this gives it control over futures pricing. For Brazilian coffee, refined flavor is not the primary goal; yield is the key.

However, Brazil also has some small farms centered on quality and flavor. There are many exquisite small farms in the Mogiana region, and Queen Farm (Fazenda Rainha) is among the best. Queen Farm covers 280 mu and is a micro-farm by Brazilian standards. The owner is the renowned and respected coffee family, the Carvalho Dias family. The family's four major farms have won awards every year since the first Brazilian COE competition in 1999, winning more than 12 times in 7 years, and in 2004 they even swept the championship, 9th place, 11th place, and more. Many large and small farms in Brazil have waited years to be shortlisted or win but failed, while this family's farms have repeatedly come away with awards. Queen Farm Fazenda Rainha also has a brilliant record: runner-up in 2000, third place in 2001, 29th place in 2005, and it has won awards 3 times so far.

The family is also a founding member of the Brazil Specialty Coffee Association, and its commitment to coffee quality and environmental protection is evident to all. Within the family's estates, natural waterfalls are used to develop pollution-free hydroelectric power to meet their own electricity needs (another of the family's frequent award-winning farms is named Waterfall Farm after this waterfall), and they have built churches, classrooms, nurseries, and medical stations, insisting on protecting native flora and fauna forests and continuing afforestation. In the case of Queen Farm, environmental protection is quite thorough; because of its higher elevation and non-plain terrain, machine harvesting cannot be used, so the fruit is entirely hand-picked, and low-yield, high-quality Yellow Bourbon varieties are planted, making it truly a representative estate of Brazil's high-quality coffee essence.

Front Street also highly recognizes Queen Farm's Yellow Bourbon coffee beans. This bean can even be called an "all-purpose oil"—it is suitable for almost all coffee-making methods. Front Street uses a medium roast to highlight the sweetness of Queen Farm's Yellow Bourbon.

Pour-over is the most commonly used method for brewing specialty coffee beans, so Front Street will now share how to brew this bean.

Like ordinary single-origin beans, this Brazilian coffee bean has better flavor within its 30-day tasting period. Therefore, Front Street suggests not buying too many coffee beans at once, but buying the next bag after finishing one. For coffee beans purchased from Front Street's online store, Front Street will send beans roasted within 5 days, so after 1-2 days of logistics, by the time they reach everyone's hands, they have already passed the 4-7 day resting period and are at their peak flavor.

As for the pour-over dripper, Front Street recommends using V60, which can highlight the aroma and sweetness of Queen Farm's Yellow Bourbon. Of course, you can also choose the Kono dripper, which can enhance the coffee's full-bodied texture.

Brewing parameters

Dose: 15 grams

Ratio: 1:15

Grind size: medium grind, 75% passing through a No. 20 sieve

Water temperature: 88°C

Pouring method: three-stage

Pouring process: in the first stage, pour 30 ml of water and bloom for 30 seconds;

In the second stage, pour water until 150 ml;

In the third stage, pour water until 225 ml;

Extraction time is 2 minutes.

Flavor description: high sweetness, clean; using semi-washed processing makes its acidity slightly bright, yet it connects well with the sweetness, and some even have tropical fruit aromas, especially the aroma that fills the air during brewing, which makes it even more appealing. Fresh sweetness like sugarcane juice, black tea, smooth fruit sweetness, obvious nutty flavor, balanced and gentle acidity, weak and clean bitterness, rich chocolate aroma and nutty flavor, with a bright and refreshing mouthfeel, smooth and delicate.

The above content is compiled by CoffeeHunters, a coffee news website.