Where Does Yellow Bourbon Coffee Come From?

Bourbon descends from Typica and was brought to Brazil in 1927, then spread across Central and South America. It resists leaf rust better than Typica, and at high altitude it develops layered, delicate flavors with soft acidity. Yellow Bourbon is a variant unique to São Paulo State whose ripe fruit stays orange-yellow instead of turning red.

Brazil's Queen Estate uses this rare variety, grown in the Mogiana region at 1,400 to 1,950 meters and processed naturally, then roasted medium-dark. In the cup it shows nuts, chocolate, cream, peanut and sugarcane, with sweetness, aroma and acidity all fairly prominent. Typica and Bourbon form the foundation of the world's Arabica coffee varieties, so tracing Bourbon explains where much of today's catalog comes from.

The Bourbon variety evolved from Typica and, after being introduced to Brazil, gradually spread across Central and South America. With its strong resistance to leaf rust and its delicate, sweet flavor at high altitudes, it has become an important local variety. In addition to the common Red Bourbon, São Paulo State in Brazil has also produced Yellow Bourbon, whose ripe fruit skin is orange-yellow, while Pink Bourbon is even rarer. This article will trace the origins and varietal characteristics of Bourbon, focusing on the Brazil Queen Estate Yellow Bourbon recommended by Front Street Coffee, and share its hand-brewing parameters and flavor performance under natural processing and medium-dark roasting.

The Bourbon variety evolved from the ancient Typica, and its beans are round. In 1927 it was brought to Brazil, and thereafter gradually spread to various countries in Central and South America. Although Bourbon's yield cannot be called high, it is more resistant to leaf rust than the weaker Typica. Bourbon planted at high altitudes has rich, layered, delicate flavors, intense aroma, and acidity that appears soft and smooth. The Bourbon fruit we usually see generally changes from green slowly to slightly yellow, orange-yellow, red, and finally to fully ripe dark red, which is what is called Red Bourbon. However, Brazil also produces another Bourbon whose ripe fruit skin is orange-yellow—Yellow Bourbon, a variant unique to São Paulo State in Brazil.

Yellow Bourbon (Bourbon Amarello), also written in English as Yellow Bourbon, is a yellow-skinned Bourbon variant unique to São Paulo State in Brazil. Normally coffee fruit turns red after ripening, but Yellow Bourbon does not turn red after ripening; instead, it remains orange-yellow, hence the name. In cupping, Yellow Bourbon's flavor is quite elegant, with sweetness, aroma, and acidity all relatively prominent. Front Street's Brazil Queen Estate coffee beans use precisely the rare Yellow Bourbon.

Front Street Coffee: Brazil Queen Estate Yellow Bourbon Coffee Beans

Region: Mogiana Region

Estate: Fazenda Rainha

Altitude: 1400–1950m

Variety: Yellow Bourbon

Processing Method: Natural Processing

Flavor: Nuts, Chocolate, Cream, Peanuts, Sugarcane

After reviewing materials, Front Street learned that the foundation of the world's Arabica coffee varieties is Typica and Bourbon, as well as their descendants. Bourbon is mainly popular in Central and South American countries and is also one of Brazil's main varieties. Bourbon's name comes from Bourbon Island, namely Réunion Island off the east coast of Africa. In the seventeenth century it was a French possession and was named Bourbon Island, only being renamed at the end of the eighteenth century. In the eighteenth century, the French introduced round coffee beans from Yemen to Bourbon Island and let them take root and grow there. By 1860, Brazil brought round Bourbon back to plant in its own country, and afterward it spread to various countries in Central and South America, becoming the oldest coffee mother variety in Latin America.

Bourbon's fruit is short, small, and round, and the coffee beans have relatively high density. Bourbon grown under high-altitude conditions has good sweetness and bright acidity. Like Typica, it is an ancient superior variety, but its resistance to leaf rust is stronger than Typica's, and its flavor is no less impressive. For common Bourbon, from flowering to fruit ripening, the color gradually changes from green to slightly yellow, red, and finally to fully ripe deep red, so it is called Red Bourbon. In addition, there are varieties that do not turn red after ripening but instead turn a rare yellow or pink, namely Yellow Bourbon and Pink Bourbon.

There is another explanation regarding the genetic origin of Pink Bourbon. Some studies indicate that Pink Bourbon is the product of natural hybridization between Colombia and Caturra. Caturra itself is a variant of Bourbon, while the Colombia variety, as a coffee tree variety heavily promoted by Colombia, carries some Robusta genes and has obvious advantages—high yield and resistance to leaf rust—while its shortcoming is mediocre flavor performance and a lack of delicacy in sweetness and acidity.

The main reason Pink Bourbon is called a rare variety is that maintaining that beautiful pink color is very difficult. Sometimes some orange Bourbon is harvested, because the color of the coffee fruit is ultimately determined by recessive genes in the pollen grains. Among the pollen grains selected by coffee farmers for hybridization, there may be yellow genes tending toward Yellow Bourbon or red genes tending toward Red Bourbon, and these are all recessive genes that very easily interfere with one another.

The "yellow" of Yellow Bourbon is determined by the genetic selection of color genes. Yellow Bourbon planted in high-altitude areas accumulates a large amount of fructose and can present a sweet, juicy, delicate flavor, so it has repeatedly won top placements in Brazil's Cup of Excellence COE competition.

After picking ripe Yellow Bourbon fruit, Queen Estate uses natural processing, allowing the coffee fruit to absorb more sweetness from the pulp during drying. Brazil is close to the equator, and the harvest season happens to be the dry season, so the coffee fruit is very suitable for direct dehydration and drying by sunlight. However, the traditional "sun-drying method" has very rough procedures: after picking, the fruit is directly spread on dirt ground to dry, and the resulting coffee easily picks up earthy flavors; uneven heating can also produce negative notes of over-fermentation. Queen Estate first pours the coffee fruit into a water tank and uses flotation to remove underripe fruit, then places small batches of coffee on African raised beds with better air permeability, turning them at irregular intervals, thereby avoiding earthy flavors and over-fermented notes, and the sweetness is also superior to that of the traditional natural method.

Because Yellow Bourbon coffee beans at high altitude have relatively high density and high glucose content, Front Street's roasting approach is to highlight the classic rich aroma of Brazilian coffee while also showcasing Bourbon's own sweetness.

After many experiments and cupping comparisons, Front Street's Brazil Queen Estate coffee beans use medium-dark roasting. After medium roasting, the internal structure of the coffee beans changes greatly and becomes loose, and after grinding into powder it absorbs water more strongly. If the brewing parameters are not adjusted well, the coffee easily over-extracts and becomes bitter. To give the coffee enough aroma without over-extracting, it is necessary to reduce the extraction rate. Front Street uses a relatively low water temperature and a relatively coarse grind to reduce the release of bitter large molecules in the coffee, and combines this with a KONO dripper for extraction, making the coffee's body and roundness better.

Hand-brewing parameters: 87–88°C water temperature, KONO dripper, medium grind (70% passing rate on China standard No. 20 sieve), coffee powder: 15 grams, powder-to-water ratio 1:15, three-stage pouring

Use twice the amount of water as the coffee powder to wet the coffee bed, forming a dome and letting it bloom for 30s, then pour in a thin stream in circles from inside to outside until 125g, pausing in stages. When the coffee bed drops to half the height of the dripper, continue pouring the third stage in the same thin stream to 225g, until all the coffee liquid has filtered through, then remove the dripper. The time is about 2 minutes. Finally, swirl the carafe to mix the coffee liquid evenly and it is ready to enjoy~

The hand-brewed Brazil Queen Estate Yellow Bourbon coffee presents aromas of dark chocolate, cream, peanuts, and nuts. On the palate it is as refreshingly sweet as sugarcane, with a balanced mouthfeel, bright flavor, and a long-lasting finish in the mouth.

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