What makes yellow bourbon coffee taste nutty and sweet?

Yellow Bourbon from Fazenda Rainha in Brazil is a naturally processed coffee with low acidity, high sweetness, and nut and chocolate flavors layered over a moderate body and a long finish. The estate sits in the Vale da Grama volcanic valley and took the Brazil Cup of Excellence title in 2011 under the Carvalho Dias family, which has collected more than 12 COE awards.

At the green bean stage this coffee already shows berry-like aromas, and the coffee process behind it, a natural method, helps preserve that sweetness. For pour-over, the goal is to reproduce its sugarcane sweetness and tropical fruit notes at home by keeping the extraction even and avoiding over-extraction of the nutty, chocolate base.

Yellow Bourbon is a highly representative variety in Brazilian specialty coffee, and Fazenda Rainha, with its multiple award-winning records in COE competitions, has become the benchmark origin for this variety. This article focuses on the naturally processed Yellow Bourbon from Fazenda Rainha selected by Front Street Coffee, providing a systematic interpretation from estate background, variety characteristics, green bean analysis, roasting approach, to cupping and pour-over parameters. This bean is characterized by low acidity and high sweetness, interwoven nut and chocolate flavors, moderate body, and a long-lasting finish, making it particularly suitable for coffee lovers who prefer a balanced mouthfeel and sweet flavors. The article also provides a complete pour-over extraction plan to help readers reproduce its sugarcane sweetness and tropical fruit aroma at home.

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In the Bourbon family, besides the rare but outstanding Pink Bourbon, there is also a variety commonly seen in specialty coffee circles—Yellow Bourbon. In Brazil, Yellow Bourbon is one of the main cultivated varieties and has won awards in COE competitions multiple times. This time, Front Street has selected a naturally processed Yellow Bourbon from the champion Fazenda Rainha. Even at the green bean stage, this bean reveals berry-like aromas, with relatively low acidity and outstanding sweetness. Upon sipping, various flavors blend together in the mouth, creating a balanced taste experience; the body is moderate, accompanied by nutty sweet aromas, with a long finish—a bean well worth trying.

[Estate Introduction]:

This coffee comes from Fazenda Rainha, a 280-mu estate located in an ancient volcanic valley in Brazil called Vale da Grama. In 2011, the estate won the championship in the Brazil COE competition. Fazenda Rainha belongs to the renowned Brazilian coffee family Carvalho Dias. Since the first Brazil COE competition was held in 1999, the four estates under the Carvalho Dias family have won awards every year, accumulating more than 12 awards within seven years, and in 2004 they swept the championship, 9th place, 11th place, and other placements.

In Brazil, many estates, large and small, have longed to be shortlisted for COE for years but struggled to achieve it, yet the estates under this family have repeatedly taken home awards. Take Fazenda Rainha for example—it has an impressive record of 2nd place in 2000, 3rd place in 2001, and 29th place in 2005, and has won awards three times so far. The Carvalho Dias family is also a founding member of the Brazil Specialty Coffee Association, and its dedication to coffee quality and environmental protection is evident to all. Within the family farm, a natural waterfall has been used to develop pollution-free hydroelectric power, achieving self-sufficiency in electricity (another consistently award-winning estate in the family is named Cachoeira Estate after this waterfall). In addition, the farm has built a church, classrooms, a nursery, and a medical station, insists on preserving the virgin forest of native flora and fauna, and continuously carries out reforestation work. As for Fazenda Rainha, its environmental measures are quite thorough. Due to the high terrain and non-flat landscape, mechanical harvesting cannot be implemented, so all fruit is hand-picked. The estate grows low-yield, high-quality Bourbon varieties, making it a representative estate of Brazil's finest coffee.

Fazenda Rainha's Coffee processing system:

Ripe cherries are hand-picked and placed into cloth bags to avoid the fruit falling to the ground. The coffee cherries harvested on the same day are always sent to the estate's processing facility for Pulped Natural processing on the same day. Hand-picking and surrounding the harvested coffee cherries with cloth bags is to avoid earthy flavors and any improper fermentation flavors. When these coffee cherries arrive at the processing facility, they immediately undergo "washing": the coffee cherries are first washed, then separated by bean size, and unqualified or shriveled fruits are screened out. The qualified beans that pass screening continue to the pulping stage (using a coffee depulper).

The estate has 200 mu planted with Yellow Bourbon coffee trees. The undulating mountainous terrain makes large-scale mechanical harvesting impossible, so all coffee here must be hand-picked. The estate uses natural/pulped natural processing methods. The semi-washed method involves drying on raised beds and drying with a dryer, followed by mechanical screening and then manual screening. A large amount of work requires farm employees to live on the farm year-round. All employees and their families can enjoy housing, healthcare, and education benefits here.

The estate is a member of a medium-scale farm organization in the local Grama Valley, mainly exporting specialty coffee of the Bourbon variety. The organization's office is located nearby in Pocos de Caldas, and it also has a national-level cupping laboratory and a large warehouse. The organization also collaborates with local universities and other institutions on research, including Lavras University—the famous Dr. Flavio Borem comes from the agricultural research center of this university.

Fazenda Rainha Award Records :

Front Street Fazenda Rainha Yellow Bourbon Green Bean Analysis

This bean is processed using the semi-washed method (pulped natural, semi-washed method) invented in Brazil. This natural processing method, similar to honey processing, makes the coffee flavor more rounded, with an effect between washed processing and full natural processing. During processing, a small amount of water is first used to remove the pulp and skin, then the coffee is directly placed on raised beds for drying, during which it is constantly turned to ensure all coffee is exposed to sunlight. After a few days of drying, mechanical drying is used to reach the appropriate moisture content.

After processing, the coffee beans are relatively stable in nature and can be stored for a long time. The moisture content is relatively low, and the coffee beans are relatively large—98% of the beans can reach 16 mesh or above, and half of them can reach 18 mesh.

The Brazilian coffee grading system scores based on defect ratio, size, flavor, and mouthfeel. It is an independent grading system, more complex than those of other countries. For example, in "Brasil Santos NY 2 SC17/18 SS FC," NY2 is the defect ratio grade: the larger the number, the more defects. The order is 2, 2/3, 3, 3/4, 4, and NY indicates that the New York grading standard is used as the benchmark.

Front Street Brazil Cerrado Coffee Green Beans

Front Street Fazenda Rainha Yellow Bourbon [Roasting Analysis]

The green beans are solid in texture with good flavor expression, carrying slight orange peel and spice notes. The green bean moisture content is 9.9%.

This bean has relatively low moisture content, which gives it a strong heat absorption capacity. So the roasting plan is to charge at 200°C, then use high heat and a small airflow to accelerate dehydration. After the dehydration phase ends, open to medium airflow and medium heat for the Maillard reaction. The time should not be too rushed, and it should be dropped near the end of first crack.

Charge amount 550g

After four test roasts, the final choice was 1 minute 45 seconds to 2 minutes after the end of first crack as optimal. The flavor carries an obvious sweetness, but it is not a dull sweetness. There is a faint lemon aroma in the background, which is more prominent during the wet aroma stage, and the latter part shows a distinct dark chocolate taste. The overall impression is relatively rounded, showcasing the overall characteristics of Brazilian coffee while still being lively.

[Front Street Fazenda Rainha Yellow Bourbon Cupping]

Dry aroma: roasted hazelnut, cinnamon

Wet aroma: slight tropical fruit aroma, cream, sucrose

Flavor: on the palate, delicate nutty notes, fruity notes, creamy peanut

FrontStreet Coffee: Brazil Fazenda Rainha Coffee Beans

Region: Brazil, Mogiana Region

Estate: Fazenda Rainha

Estate owner: Regina Helena Mello de Carvalho Dias, belonging to the Carvalho Dias family

Variety: Yellow Bourbon

Processing method: Pulped natural

Altitude: 1400–1950m

Flavor: chocolate, nuts, caramel, sugarcane, tropical fruit aroma

[Front Street Fazenda Rainha Yellow Bourbon Pour-Over Parameters] :

Coffee dose: 15g, medium grind (Fuji Ghost Teeth 4 grind), Kono dripper, 88–89°C water temperature. First pour 30g of water for a 27-second bloom, then pour to 105g and pause. Wait until the water level in the coffee bed drops to half before pouring again, slowly pouring until reaching 225g. Discard the final part. Water-to-coffee ratio 1:15, extraction time 2:00.

Pour-over flavor: The bean is sweet and clean. Using pulped natural processing gives it slightly bright acidity that nevertheless returns to sweetness beautifully, and some even have tropical fruit aromas—especially the aroma wafting about during brewing, which is even more delightful. The fresh sweetness of sugarcane juice, black tea, soft and smooth fruit sweetness, obvious nutty flavors, balanced and gentle acidity, faint and clean bitterness, rich chocolate aroma and nutty flavors, bright and refreshing mouthfeel, smooth and delicate texture.

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