How Does Arabica Red Bourbon Perform in the Cup and in Brewing?

Brazil Red Bourbon is one of the oldest arabica varieties, spread from Bourbon Island, now Réunion, across Latin America and Africa by missionaries and traders. In Brazil it took root in South of Minas, hilly land at 700 to 1200 meters, where hand-picked cherries are semi-sun-dried. The cup is high in sweetness, clean and smooth, low in acidity, with tropical fruit aromas and a nutty, chocolate base.

South of Minas is one of Brazil's earliest-developed coffee areas, now largely mechanized and highly commercialized, with many large exporters based there. Bahia is known for washed Brazilian beans, while Espírito Santo leads Robusta exports. The same coffee seeds suit pour-over, French press and AeroPress; Front Street's roasting curve and brewing data give concrete parameters for each method.

Red Bourbon is one of the oldest Arabica varieties, spreading from the island of Bourbon in the Indian Ocean across Latin America and Africa through the hands of missionaries and traders. This article walks you through the story of how Red Bourbon took root in Brazil, explains the terroir of the South of Minas region, the characteristics of the semi-washed process and the logic behind green bean grading, and combines Front Street Coffee's Brazil Red Bourbon roasting curve and brewing data to offer specific parameter suggestions for pour-over, French press, and AeroPress. Whether you want to understand the spread of the Bourbon variety or are looking for a high-sweetness, low-acidity, nutty-chocolate daily drinking bean, this article can serve as a reference.

Front Street Coffee Brazil Red Bourbon

【Country】Brazil

【Variety】Red Bourbon

【Processing Method】Hand-picked, then semi-sun-dried

【Origin】South of Minas

【Altitude】700m-1200m

【Processing Method】Semi-washed

【Flavor】High sweetness, clean, smooth, low acidity, with tropical fruit aromas.

01|Origin Introduction

The hilly terrain of South of Minas, at altitudes of 700 to 1200 meters, is one of the earliest-developed production areas on Brazil's coffee map. As labor costs continue to climb, most estates here have now shifted to mechanical harvesting, and the degree of commercialization is also the highest, with many large exporters setting up base here. Moving north, Bahia is known for its washed Brazilian beans, while Espírito Santo, bordering the Atlantic, is Brazil's main source of Robusta exports.

Brazil's coffee-growing terrain falls roughly into two categories: the Brazilian Highlands above 500 meters, and the Brazilian plains below 200 meters. The most widely recognized variety on the market is the Bourbon family, including Yellow Bourbon, Red Bourbon, and flat-bean Santos. Front Street Coffee's Brazilian coffee overall leans toward low acidity, nutty flavors, good balance, and moderate body — not particularly eye-catching in the specialty coffee context, but often used as a base in espresso blends. Precisely because of its balance, many merchants use it to simulate Blue Mountain flavor.

Bourbon Variety

Let's briefly discuss the origins of Bourbon coffee. Bourbon coffee first took root on Réunion Island, which was called Île Bourbon before 1789. Bourbon is a secondary variety resulting from a mutation of Typica, and together with Typica it ranks among the oldest surviving coffee varieties. Its fruit turns bright red when ripe.

The coloring process of Red Bourbon fruit goes roughly: green → slightly yellow → slightly orange → ripe red → overripe dark red, which is why some people also call it 【Red Bourbon】. Ultimately, Red Bourbon is what we commonly call the Bourbon variety. Bourbon grown at higher altitudes tends to have more outstanding aroma and brighter acidity, with a mouthfeel that can even evoke a wine-like quality.

Simply put, Bourbon is a branch under the Arabica species, generally bearing red fruit, called Red Bourbon; there are also Yellow Bourbon and Orange Bourbon, among which Yellow Bourbon has lower yields but usually better quality.

The Spread of the Bourbon Variety

The Typica variety introduced to Brazil in 1727 had low yields and was susceptible to disease, so Bourbon was introduced to Brazil around 1860 via Campinas in the south, then rapidly spread northward to other parts of South and Central America. In Latin America today, although Bourbon has mostly been replaced by its variants (especially Caturra, Catuai, and Mundo Novo), it is still grown in El Salvador, Guatemala, Costa Rica, Peru, and other countries.

Turning to Africa, the French missionaries known as Spiritan (from the Congregation of the Holy Spirit) played a key role in the spread of Bourbon. The first mission was established on Réunion in 1841, with a branch set up in Zanzibar in 1859; from Zanzibar, branches were established in 1862 at Bagamoyo (coastal Tanzania, then called Tanganyika) and St. Augustine (Kikuyu, Kenya), and in 1893 another branch was added at Bura (Taita Hills, Kenya). Each establishment of a mission was accompanied by coffee seeds brought from Réunion being planted.

In 1899, seedlings cultivated at Bura were sent to another French mission at St. Cruz (near Nairobi), and in 1900 they were introduced to the Kilimanjaro region of Tanzania, with seeds distributed to local residents willing to grow coffee — this is the origin of "Missionary Bourbon." Later, the Kent variety was also introduced in 1920. Therefore, to this day, Tanzanian coffee is still dominated by Bourbon and Kent.

——French territory Île Bourbon

——1860 pointed Bourbon to New Caledonia and Yemen

——1732 round Bourbon to the British territory of St. Helena.

——1860 round Bourbon to Brazil.

——1900 round Bourbon to Rwanda, Kenya, Tanzania

——After 2000, pointed Bourbon to Colombia.

03|Processing Method Introduction

Semi-Washed Method

After the coffee cherries are harvested, they are first passed through a water tank to remove unripe fruit and debris, then the skin and part of the pulp are removed, and the mucilage is cleared with a demucilager. Removing the mucilage helps shorten the time needed for sun drying and reduces the risk of fermentation. This method is mostly used in production areas with less-than-ideal climate conditions. If air humidity is high, the climate is warm, or rain occurs, mold damage can easily occur during drying. For this reason, most washed beans in Brazil destined for commercial trade are processed using the semi-washed method.

02 | Green Bean Analysis

Brazil has a wide variety of coffees, with sun-drying as the primary processing method, usually classified by the state of origin and shipping port.

Due to scattered production areas and inconsistent quality, classification standards are also not uniform:

The Brazilian grading system addresses defect ratio, size, flavor, and cup score, and is an independent grading system more complex than those of other countries. For example, "Brasil Santos, NY 2 SC17/18 SS FC": NY2 is the defect ratio grade, where a higher number means more defects, in order of 2, 2/3, 3, 3/4... NY indicates that the New York grading standard is used as the benchmark.

SC 17/18 indicates the screen size of the coffee beans. SS FC (Strictly Soft and Fine Cup) indicates flavor and mouthfeel; this classification has two groups: the first group is Strictly Soft, Soft, Softish, Hard, Hardish, Rioy/Rioysh, Rio; the second group is Fine Cup and Good Cup. The main characteristics of Brazilian coffee are high sweetness, clean, smooth, and low acidity, making it quite versatile and widely loved by consumers.

04 | Roasting Analysis

Brazilian coffee generally grows at altitudes of 1000-1300 meters, with relatively low density, moderate moisture content, softer bean texture, and thinner thickness from bean surface to core, so it is not suitable for roasting at too high a temperature, otherwise scorched bitterness can easily occur. We choose to drop the beans at medium heat, maintaining the heat through the dehydration phase, and making fine adjustments as the temperature rises after first crack begins, to promote more complete caramelization. This semi-washed bean rises slowly in temperature after first crack, and can be dropped when approaching second crack.

Roaster: Yangjia 600g semi-direct fire

Preheat the roaster to 200°C and drop the beans, set the damper to 3, turn on the heat after 30s, adjust the heat to 160, keep the damper unchanged, turning point at 1'30, maintain heat, at 5'00 turn yellow, grassy smell disappears, entering the dehydration phase, lower heat to 130, open damper to 4, when reaching 168°C lower heat again to 100.

At 8'00 dehydration is complete, the bean surface shows wrinkling and dark streaks, the toasted bread smell turns to coffee aroma, this is the prelude to first crack, so listen carefully for the sound of first crack. At 8'50 first crack begins, damper fully open to 5. Post-first-crack development time is 3 minutes 10 seconds, at 190°C lower heat to 50, at 194°C lower again to 30, drop the beans at about 200°C.

Front Street Coffee Brazil Red Bourbon is a well-balanced coffee with a typical Brazilian coffee style. Nutty and chocolate flavors are prominent, with low acidity.

06|Brewing Data

Recommended brewing method: Pour-over

Grind size: 4 (Japan Fuji R440)

Water temperature: 89°C

V60 dripper, 15g coffee, water temperature 90-91°C, grind 3.5, water-to-coffee ratio close to 1:15

Bloom with 30g water, bloom time 30s

Stages: pour to 120ml and pause, then slowly pour to 225ml,

i.e., 30-120-75, total extraction time 2 minutes

Other drip extraction suggestions:

French press, recommended grind 3.5-4 / water temperature 90°C

AeroPress, recommended grind 2.5, water temperature 90°C

【Front Street Specialty Espresso Blend Coffee Beans】Front Street Colombia and Front Street Brazil coffee beans blended together bring natural sweetness, with some nutty, peach, and almond flavors, caramel sweetness, chocolate-like silkiness, and obvious balance. Today when dialing in the grinder, for the double spout portafilter I first tried a 1.9 grind setting with 21.5g dose and found the dose was too much — no liquid came out even after 5 seconds. By reducing the dose to 20.5g and keeping the grind setting unchanged, I used a 1:2 ratio to extract 42g of espresso in 28 seconds.

Related recommendations: How to pour-over Front Street Coffee Brazil Yellow Bourbon and an introduction to its differences from Red Bourbon

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