How Does Yellow Bourbon Coffee Differ From Red Bourbon?

Red, Yellow and Pink Bourbon all belong to the Bourbon lineage under the Arabica species, and they differ mainly in fruit color, yield and cup profile. Yellow Bourbon coffee is often reported to yield more than Red Bourbon, while Red Bourbon remains the more widely planted. Pink Bourbon is the rarest of the three, harder to cultivate and lower in output.

Bourbon itself is an old Arabica variety named after Reunion Island, called le Bourbon before 1789. Its leaves are broader than Typica, growth is denser and yield about 30 percent higher, with round short beans, berry-like acidity and a creamy, full body. Disease resistance is weak. Front Street's Brazil Cerrado and Queen Estate lots, along with Colombia Isabella, show how roast curves and pour-over parameters shift across these branches.

As the specialty coffee wave continues to heat up, various subspecies under the Arabica species have entered the public eye. Typica, Caturra, and Catuai each have their own characteristics, and the Bourbon lineage has further spawned multiple branches such as Red Bourbon, Yellow Bourbon, and Pink Bourbon. This article, from the perspective of Front Street Coffee, systematically sorts out the origins of Bourbon coffee beans, analyzes one by one the differences among Red Bourbon, Yellow Bourbon, and Pink Bourbon in fruit color, flavor expression, cultivation difficulty, and yield, and includes the roasting curves and pour-over brewing parameters for three representative beans: Front Street Brazil Cerrado, Brazil Queen Estate, and Colombia Isabella, helping coffee enthusiasts fully understand the charm of this ancient lineage.

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The specialty coffee market continues to grow, and the varieties that coffee enthusiasts encounter are becoming increasingly rich. Most people familiar with single-origin coffee know that almost all single-origin coffee on the market belongs to the pure Arabica species, and under Arabica there are many subspecies such as Typica, Bourbon, Caturra, and Catuai. Within the Bourbon lineage there are likewise many branches, with Red Bourbon, Yellow Bourbon, and Pink Bourbon each having their own strengths. Today, Front Street Coffee will take everyone to gain a deeper understanding of the unique qualities of Bourbon variety coffee beans.

Origin of Bourbon Variety Coffee Beans

Bourbon and Typica both belong to the ancient varieties under the Arabica species. Bourbon coffee was first introduced to Reunion Island in Brazil, which was called le Bourbon before 1789, and the coffee variety got its name from this.

Front Street Coffee has observed that although Bourbon and Typica are both old varieties, Bourbon's leaves are broader than Typica's, its growth is denser, and its yield is about 30% higher than Typica. Bourbon beans are relatively round and short, with berry-like acidity and aroma, thick and full-bodied, with outstanding creaminess and aroma, strong acidic aroma, and clear fruity acidity, but its disease resistance is also relatively weak. In simple terms, Bourbon is a branch under the Arabica species, usually bearing red fruit, called Red Bourbon, and there are also Yellow Bourbon and Pink Bourbon.

What Is Red Bourbon?

After the Red Bourbon coffee tree flowers and bears fruit, the fruit color undergoes a series of changes: green turns slightly yellow, then slightly orange, then mature red, and finally darker red when overripe, hence the name Red Bourbon. Its aroma expression is relatively good, its acidity is bright, and on the palate one can even感受到 a flavor similar to red wine. According to Front Street Coffee, Red Bourbon is also currently the most widely planted variety in Brazil's coffee-producing regions.

Front Street Brazil Cerrado uses coffee beans of the Red Bourbon variety precisely to present the classic flavor of Brazil's coffee-producing regions. Red Bourbon is not only the most produced variety of Brazilian coffee beans, but also the most original variety.

Front Street Brazil Cerrado Red Bourbon Coffee Beans

Country: Brazil Region: South Minas Altitude: 1000m Variety: Red Bourbon Processing Method: Semi-dry Flavor: Nuts, Chocolate, Cream, Peanut, Caramel

What Is Yellow Bourbon?

Yellow Bourbon is a genetic mutation of Bourbon. Bourbon has always been known for high yield and good quality and is regarded as outstanding among coffees. Yellow Bourbon is a Bourbon variant unique to São Paulo State, Brazil. After the fruit matures, it does not turn red like Red Bourbon, but instead appears orange-yellow, hence the name Yellow Bourbon. Because Yellow Bourbon is mostly grown at higher altitudes, its flavor expression is quite excellent.

Through cupping, Front Street Coffee has found that Yellow Bourbon coffee beans grown at high altitudes have excellent flavor. In the Brazil Cup of Excellence competition, Yellow Bourbon coffee beans swept the top three awards for two consecutive years, making it famous in the specialty coffee world. Yellow Bourbon usually carries nutty and chocolate flavors, with balanced and smooth acidity, weak and clean bitterness, and an overall bright and refreshing character.

Front Street Brazil Queen Estate coffee beans are precisely of the Yellow Bourbon variety, which also explains why they have excellent sweetness, overall balance and richness, and a smooth mouthfeel.

Front Street Brazil Queen Estate Coffee Beans

Country: Brazil Region: São Paulo State (Queen Estate) Altitude: 1400-1950m Variety: Yellow Bourbon Processing Method: Semi-dry / Natural Flavor: Nuts, Cream, Peanut, Fermented Fruit, Cane Sugar

What Is Pink Bourbon?

Pink Bourbon, as the name suggests, presents a romantic pink color after the coffee fruit matures and is a rare coffee variety. According to Front Street, Pink Bourbon was first discovered not in its place of origin, Brazil, but in the town of Palestine in Huila Department, Colombia, and it is currently mainly grown in Colombia's Huila region.

Front Street also learned that Pink Bourbon is a natural hybrid of Yellow Bourbon and Red Bourbon. Yellow Bourbon and Red Bourbon are dominant traits expressed by dominant genes and have relatively strong reproductive stability, while Pink Bourbon produced by their hybridization is a recessive trait expressed by recessive genes, and hybrid offspring are highly prone to trait segregation.

However, there is another explanation regarding the genetic origin of Pink Bourbon. Some studies point out that Pink Bourbon may be the product of natural hybridization between Bourbon and Caturra. Caturra is a variant of Bourbon, and the Colombia variety, as a coffee tree variety heavily promoted in that country, carries some Robusta genes. Its advantage is high yield and resistance to leaf rust, but its flavor expression is mediocre and lacks delicate sweet-and-sour layers.

The main reason Front Street Coffee calls Pink Bourbon a rare variety is that maintaining a beautiful pink color is very difficult. Artificial hybridization sometimes yields Orange Bourbon, because the color of the coffee fruit is ultimately determined by recessive genes in the pollen grains. Among these pollen grains, there are both yellow genes tending toward Yellow Bourbon and red genes tending toward Red Bourbon, both of which are recessive genes and very easily interfere with each other. Therefore, Pink Bourbon's yield is very scarce and its price is relatively expensive.

Front Street Coffee currently also has coffee beans of the Pink Bourbon variety from Huila, Colombia, specially shared with coffee-loving friends. This coffee bean has a distinctive cherry tomato flavor, easily reminiscent of berry acidity, along with vanilla and dark chocolate flavors, with an overall cane sugar sweetness in the finish and distinct flavor layers.

Front Street Colombia Isabella Coffee Beans

Country: Colombia Region: Huila Altitude: 1760m Variety: Pink Bourbon Processing Method: Semi-washed Flavor: Cherry Tomato, Citrus, Floral, Honey, Fruit

The above is the relevant content compiled by Front Street Coffee about Bourbon variety coffee beans, hoping to help coffee-loving friends who want to understand the Bourbon variety. Before launching each new coffee bean, Front Street Coffee conducts extensive roasting and brewing tests to determine the optimal pour-over parameters and ensure stable coffee bean quality. Next, Front Street Coffee will share the brewing data for these three coffee beans.

Front Street Coffee Roasting Parameter Sharing

Brazilian coffee beans are mainly characterized by richness and body. In order to highlight this flavor, the roast level is recommended to be controlled at medium or above. Front Street Coffee's roasters use medium roast for both Brazilian Bourbon beans.

Roasting Data for Red Bourbon Coffee Beans and Yellow Bourbon Coffee Beans:

Yangjia 800N, bean charge 550g: preheat the facility to 200°C and load the beans, adjust heat to 150, open airflow to 3, turning point at 1'30", maintain heat, at 5'10" turn yellow, grassy smell disappears, entering the dehydration stage, lower heat to 125, open airflow to 3.5. At 8'20" dehydration is complete, bean surface develops wrinkles and dark streaks, the toast aroma turns into coffee fragrance, which is the prelude to first crack. At 178°C lower heat to 80, and at this time pay attention to listen for the sound of first crack. At 9'14" first crack begins, open airflow fully to 5. Development time after first crack is 3'00, drop at 201°C.

Roasting Data for Pink Bourbon Coffee Beans:

Because Pink Bourbon has a unique flavor presentation, in order to explore this bean's better flavor potential, Front Street's roaster uses a medium-light roast. Load into the roaster when the temperature reaches 180°C, open airflow to 3, heat at 120; turning point at 1'42", when the temperature reaches 140°C keep heat unchanged and open airflow to 4; at this time the bean surface turns yellow, the grassy smell completely disappears, entering the dehydration stage. At 176°C lower heat to 100, at 180°C lower heat to 70, and keep airflow unchanged. At 8'17", wrinkles and dark streaks appear on the bean surface, and the toast aroma clearly turns into coffee fragrance, which can be defined as the prelude to first crack. At this time, listen clearly for the sound of the first crack point. At 9'30" first crack begins, adjust airflow to 5 (adjusting heat must be done very carefully, not so low that there is no cracking sound), develop for 1'30'' after first crack, drop at 191.5°C.

Front Street Coffee Brewing Recommendations

Brewing Recommendations for Brazil Red Bourbon & Yellow Bourbon

Dripper: KONO Dose: 15g Water Temperature: 90°C Grind Size: Medium grind, 70% passing through a No. 20 standard sieve Water-to-Coffee Ratio: 1:15

Brazilian coffee beans are roasted relatively dark. To highlight richness and body, Front Street Coffee chooses the Kono dripper for brewing. The Kono dripper is characterized by its immersion function, extracting more coffee substances through immersion to enhance the rich mouthfeel. Its ribs are few and located at the lower end, allowing the filter paper to fit closely against the dripper to restrict airflow, slow the water flow rate, and increase the contact time between water and coffee.

The water temperature is chosen at 88°C, which is a relatively low brewing temperature and can avoid extracting too many off-flavors, because the darker the coffee bean roast, the more off-flavors increase accordingly.

Brewing Recommendations for Colombia Pink Bourbon

Dripper: Hario V60 Water Temperature: 90°C Dose: 15 grams Coffee-to-Water Ratio: 1:16 Grind Size: Medium-fine grind (BG 6k: 82% passing through a Chinese standard No. 20 sieve)

Pink Bourbon is a medium-light roast. Front Street Coffee chooses the V60 dripper for brewing because the V60's long ribs help quickly extract flavor substances, and the large-hole design does not obstruct water flow, resulting in a coffee with rich layers.

Front Street Coffee Brewing Method

All three coffee beans use staged extraction: 30 grams of water for blooming for 30 seconds, then pour in a small stream in circles until 125 grams, pause, and when the water level drops and is about to expose the coffee bed, continue pouring until 225 grams and stop, (timing starts from the beginning of blooming) with an extraction time of 2 minutes. The brewing method for the two beans should be kept as consistent as possible.

(Red Bourbon) Brewed Flavor of Brazil Red Bourbon Coffee Beans: High sweetness, clean, smooth, low acidity, with flavors of peanut, almond, nuts, and chocolate.

(Yellow Bourbon) Flavor of Brazil Queen Estate Coffee Beans: Balanced mouthfeel, with the sweetness of cane sugar highlighted within an almond-cocoa main tone; it is a coffee with good body and abundant sweetness.

(Pink Bourbon) Brewed Flavor of Colombia Isabella Coffee Beans: Citrus, berries, and cherry tomato on the entry; as the temperature changes, there is caramel sweetness and a faint fermented aroma; the finish has floral and nutty creamy aromas, with a smooth and clean mouthfeel.

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