Where Did Bourbon Coffee Beans Come From?

Bourbon coffee beans are among the oldest varieties in the Arabica species. They originated on Réunion Island, once called Bourbon Island, and arose as a mutation of Typica. Centuries of spread and natural variation produced the Bourbon family, including Red Bourbon, Yellow Bourbon, Pink Bourbon, and Bourbon Pointu, each with its own color and form.

The fruit stays green when unripe and turns bright red at maturity; Yellow Bourbon ripens to yellow instead. Bourbon grown at high altitude usually shows a fuller aroma and brighter acidity. Producers rank the factors behind specialty coffee quality as variety first, then altitude, then processing method, and Rwanda and Brazil both show the variety's nutty, gently sweet base.

Bourbon coffee beans are one of the oldest varieties within the Arabica species, originating from Réunion Island (formerly known as Bourbon Island) and arising from a mutation of Typica. After centuries of spread and natural variation, the Bourbon family has derived multiple varieties with different colors and forms, such as Red Bourbon, Yellow Bourbon, Pink Bourbon, and Bourbon Pointu. This article will systematically review the origin and spread routes of Bourbon coffee, explain in detail the discovery process, flavor characteristics, and current cultivation status of each variant, and introduce the taste performance and brewing suggestions of the Bourbon series products under Front Street Coffee, helping coffee enthusiasts gain a comprehensive understanding of this classic variety.

Front Street Coffee Bourbon coffee beans Types: Red Bourbon, Yellow Bourbon, Orange Bourbon, Pink Bourbon, Blue Bourbon... How many colors of Bourbon coffee beans have you seen?

First, a brief introduction to the definition of Bourbon coffee beans. Bourbon coffee was first planted on Réunion Island, which was called Bourbon Island (le Bourbon) before 1789. Bourbon is a secondary variety produced after a mutation of Typica (Typica), and together with Typica it is among the oldest existing coffee varieties. The fruit is green when unripe and turns bright red when ripe. The Front Street Brazil semi-washed coffee in Front Street Coffee's daily beans series presents a typical Bourbon taste, with a slightly sweet finish and nutty notes. We can also find similar flavor performance in another small African country, Rwanda. Although they belong to the same Bourbon variety and may be separated by vast distances, the flavor foundation of the variety is always difficult to change. Therefore, Front Street Coffee believes that the influencing factors of specialty coffee are, in order: variety, altitude, and processing method.

For Red Bourbon, generally after the coffee tree blooms and bears fruit, the color change of the coffee fruit is: green > turning slightly yellow > turning slightly orange > turning ripe red > then turning darker red when more mature. Therefore, some people also call it [Red Bourbon variety]. In fact, Red Bourbon is what we generally call Bourbon. Bourbon grown at high altitudes usually has better aroma, while the acidity is brighter, and it can even taste somewhat like red wine.

To put it more plainly, Bourbon coffee beans The species is a coffee tree species belonging to a branch of the Arabica species. It generally bears red fruit, called Red Bourbon. In addition, there are also Yellow Bourbon and Orange Bourbon. Yellow Bourbon has relatively lower yield, but its quality is better.

The story of Bourbon coffee beans — spread route

Because the Typica variety introduced to Brazil in 1727 had low yield and was susceptible to disease, Bourbon was introduced to Brazil around 1860 via Campinas in the south, and quickly expanded northward to other regions of South America and Central America. In Latin America today, although most Bourbon has basically been replaced by its variants (especially Caturra, Catuai, and Mundo Novo, etc.), Bourbon is still grown in countries such as El Salvador, Guatemala, Costa Rica, and Peru.

In Africa, French missionaries known as Spiritan (from the Congregation of the Holy Spirit) played an important role in the spread of Bourbon. In 1841, the first church was established on Réunion, and in 1859 a branch was established in Zanzibar; from Zanzibar, in 1862 one branch each was established in Bagamoyo (Bagamoyo, coastal Tanzania, then called Tanganyika) and St. Augustine (Kikuyu, Kenya), and in 1893 another branch was established in Bura (Taita Hills, Kenya). The establishment of each branch was accompanied by the planting of coffee seeds brought from Réunion.

In 1899, seedlings cultivated in Bura were taken to another French mission in Saint Cruz (near Nairobi), and in 1900 they were introduced to the Kilimanjaro region of Tanzania, where seeds were distributed to local residents willing to grow coffee. This is the origin of what is called "Missionary Bourbon." Then Kent was also introduced in 1920. Therefore, up to now, coffee in Tanzania is still mainly Bourbon and Kent.

——French-controlled Bourbon Island

——In 1860, Bourbon Pointu reached New Caledonia and Yemen

——In 1732, round-bodied Bourbon reached the British territory of Saint Helena Island.

——In 1860, round-bodied Bourbon reached Brazil.

——In 1900, round-bodied Bourbon reached Rwanda, Kenya, and Tanzania

——After 2000, Bourbon Pointu reached Colombia.

Bourbon coffee bean variants

During reproduction, due to various factors such as natural mutation, intra-species crossing, and artificial breeding, many new varieties have been produced, such as Caturra, Catuai, Pacas, Yellow Bourbon, Bourbon Pointu, SL28, SL34, and a long list of others.

[Gene mutation type — Bourbon variants]

Bourbon coffee beans Yellow Bourbon

Yellow Bourbon is produced by crossing Bourbon with other varieties. Because its yield is lower and it is relatively less resistant to wind and rain, it has not been widely planted. However, when grown in high-altitude areas, it shows excellent flavor performance, and it has become more common in recent years. Yellow Bourbon, as the name suggests, has yellow fruit when ripe. It was first discovered in Brazil and is currently mainly grown in Brazil. It is generally believed that it may have originated from a mutation after crossing red-fruited Bourbon with a yellow-fruited Typica variant called "Amerelo de Botocatu."

I once tried Front Street Queen's Estate Yellow Bourbon. At a medium-dark roast, it had a clean and balanced walnut taste, a creamy, delicate, and smooth texture, paired with a clear sweet orange sweetness, and a full mocha chocolate finish lingering in the mouth.

Characteristics of Front Street Yellow Bourbon coffee beans : Sweet and smooth fruit sweetness, obvious nutty flavor, balanced and gentle acidity, weak and clean bitterness, rich chocolate aroma and nutty flavor, bright and refreshing taste.

Bourbon coffee beans Pink Bourbon

Pink Bourbon, as the name suggests, has romantic pink coffee cherries when ripe. It is a very rare new variety, bred by crossing Red Bourbon and Yellow Bourbon. The reason Pink Bourbon is said to be a rare variety is mainly that it is very, very difficult to maintain this beautiful pink color. Sometimes some orange Bourbon is harvested, because the final color of the coffee fruit is determined by recessive genes in the pollen grains. Among the pollen grains we select for crossing, there are both yellow genes tending toward Yellow Bourbon and red genes tending toward Red Bourbon, and these are all recessive genes, very easily interfering with each other.

At present, Pink Bourbon can be seen in Colombia and Guatemala. Taking this batch of Front Street Pink Bourbon coffee as an example, there are about 1,800 coffee trees. Over one production season, each tree produces about 1.8 kg of fresh fruit. After pulping and mucilage removal, about 0.36 kg of coffee beans is obtained. In a normal production season, the output of this batch of coffee is only less than 650 kg.

Characteristics of Front Street Pink Bourbon coffee beans: sweet orange, sugarcane sweetness, pleasant juicy feel, cherry tomato

Bourbon coffee Bourbon Pointu

Bourbon Pointu: discovered on Bourbon Island in 1810. The bean body changed from round to pointed, and the caffeine content is only half; however, the yield is small and the plant is weak, making it extremely precious (mostly cultivated in laboratories).

Bourbon Pointu also has two other names, Laurina and Leroy, but neither is as famous as Bourbon Pointu. It is called Bourbon Pointu because the bean shape is narrow and long, with pointed ends, while native Bourbon (sometimes called round Bourbon) has a shorter bean body and a contour somewhat like an ellipse.

Because of its good flavor and low caffeine content (not greatly affecting sleep), Bourbon Pointu was already loved by the world as early as the 18th century. Many famous people, such as King Louis XV of France and the novelist Balzac, were its "fans." During the two hundred years from the 18th to the 19th century, Bourbon Pointu was once planted on a large scale on Bourbon Island, and in 1800 it even reached a peak annual output of 4,000 metric tons. But afterward, a series of disasters such as hurricanes, fire ants, and leaf rust followed one after another, causing cultivation to decline day by day. Finally, in 1942, the last batch of Bourbon Pointu shipped back to France was only a pitiful 200 kg, and since then, Bourbon Pointu disappeared without a trace, and even official documents no longer mentioned it. After the 1950s, no one on Réunion Island planted coffee anymore, and the island's agriculture completely shifted to other crops such as sugarcane. Coffee no longer had any connection with Réunion Island, and Bourbon Pointu was recognized by the coffee industry as "already extinct."

Given that this bean disappeared for half a century and only reappeared 8 years ago, on the international market, Bourbon Pointu produced in its place of origin, La Reunion Island, is priced at more than 500 yuan per 100 grams. After that, Colombia also began to grow this bean, and only Camilo Merizalde, the source of beans for multiple WBC champions, dared to take on the transplantation of this bean. Therefore, this coffee bean, with a global annual output of only a few tons, is extremely valuable.

Flavor description in the archive: bright acidity, notes of blueberry and vanilla, velvety smoothness

Bourbon variant Pacas

Pacas is a natural mutation of Bourbon, similar to Brazil's Caturra and Costa Rica's Villa Sarchi. Like other widely planted Bourbon mutations, Pacas is a new variety formed by a single-gene mutation, and this also gives Pacas a crucial characteristic: the plant can be further densely planted, ultimately resulting in higher yield per unit area.

Pacas was first discovered in 1949 by the Pacas family in the Santa Ana region of El Salvador. Fernando Alberto Pacas Figuero discovered some plants with different morphology on his family's own estate, Finca San Rafael. He then began collecting seeds and carrying out selection, and later developed about 3/4 hectare of a Pacas "pioneer nursery."

The discoverer of Pacas, Fernando Alberto Pacas Figuero

By 1956, Francisco de Sola and Fernando's son, Fernando Alberto Pacas Trujillo, with the help of Professor William Cogwill from Florida, began research on the Pacas variety. They compared San Ramon Bourbon with an "unknown" new variety, and this "unknown" variety showed completely different characteristics. Its plant morphology was also different from Bourbon, with shorter internode spacing and a larger fruiting area. Finally, they named this variety "Pacas."

Front Street Coffee recommended brewing parameters: BG-6M/86-88℃/KONO dripper or V60 dripper/1:15/15 g coffee grounds/bloom for 30 seconds, brew with 225 g water, total extraction time 2 minutes.

Front Street Coffee compared Front Street Brazil Queen's Estate Yellow Bourbon brewed with a V60 dripper and a KONO dripper and found that the cup brewed with the V60 dripper had a slightly thinner mouthfeel, with soft fruit acidity, and was overall relatively refreshing; while the cup brewed with the KONO dripper had a full body and strong sweetness.

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