How does Pink Bourbon coffee differ from yellow bourbon coffee?

Pink Bourbon is a rare variety whose pink fruit color comes from a recessive pollen gene, so it is often bred in Central America from a cross of Red and Yellow Bourbon. When dominant red or yellow genes appear, the pink is masked and fruit turns pinkish-orange, which is why farmers plant it separately to keep the color stable.

A Colombian Pink Bourbon from Finca El Diviso, honey-processed and brewed at 92C with a medium-light roast, showed layers of berry, citrus, floral, and oolong tea notes. Unlike yellow bourbon coffee, Pink Bourbon's recessive color trait makes uniform harvests harder; comparing coffee beans by country helps explain why Colombian lots of this variety draw attention.

Pink Bourbon has attracted much attention in the specialty coffee world in recent years thanks to its pinkish fruit and elegant flavors reminiscent of Geisha. How exactly does it differ from Red Bourbon and Yellow Bourbon? This article covers the variety's origins and genetic controversy through to actual brewing, giving you a comprehensive understanding of this rare bean. Front Street Coffee recently got its hands on a Pink Bourbon from Colombia's Finca San洁 estate, honey-processed, extracted with a medium-light roast and 92°C water, and the cupping showed layers of berry, citrus, floral, and oolong tea notes. If you're also curious about coffee varieties with colors in their names, or want to find a high-quality option that closely resembles Geisha, this article will give you the complete answer.

A couple of days ago, Front Street conducted another round of interviews and surveys, and found that many friends were initially drawn in by the colors in these variety names. They said that just looking at the names, they couldn't help imagining how delicious the coffee brewed from these beans must be.

To be honest, when Front Street first got into coffee, it was also often captivated by beans with colors in their names—Pink Bourbon, for example, was one of those "colored varieties" that made Front Street particularly curious back then. In the earlier article about Red Bourbon and Yellow Bourbon, Front Street already covered them, so this time let's focus specifically on what Pink Bourbon actually is.

What is Pink Bourbon? Like Red Bourbon and Yellow Bourbon, the "pink" in Pink Bourbon refers to the color of the coffee fruit's outer skin. It is a relatively rare variety, and in Central America it is usually bred from a cross between Red Bourbon and Yellow Bourbon. Unlike Red Bourbon and Yellow Bourbon, however, Pink Bourbon's pretty exterior is not easy to maintain consistently. The reason is that this color is controlled by a recessive gene in the pollen. Once it encounters the dominant red or yellow gene, the pink is masked, so farmers growing Pink Bourbon sometimes also harvest bourbon fruit that leans pinkish-orange.

To preserve that attractive pink color, the ideal approach is to plant Pink Bourbon separately from bourbons of other colors, reducing genetic interference, so that a stable harvest of pink-skinned fruit becomes more likely. As for the origin of Pink Bourbon, there is still debate, but the more widely accepted view is that it first appeared in the San Adolfo area of Colombia's Huila region between the 1950s and 1980s. At the time, Cenicafe, a research body under the Colombian Coffee Growers Federation (FNC), established an experimental farm there and planted hundreds of varieties for study.

At that time, Colombian coffee was under attack from leaf rust, so estate owners in San Adolfo bought some disease-resistant varieties from the experimental farm to plant, among them the disease-resistant seedlings later known as "Pink Bourbon," then called "Orange Tree." Later, farmers noticed that some of these disease-resistant varieties produced pink fruit, and their tree shape and yield were very close to Bourbon, so they simply called it "Bourbon Rosado." In Spanish, Rosado means "pink," which translates into Chinese as "粉红波旁" (Pink Bourbon).

In recent years, however, people have noticed that some Pink Bourbon beans differ greatly from traditional Bourbon in both appearance and flavor. They are not the round, compact type, but rather closer to Geisha's slender, pointed shape. In flavor, too, they carry Geisha-like floral notes and citrus acidity. This makes one wonder: are these Pink Bourbons really still "Bourbon"?

So many laboratories conducted genetic identification and research on Pink Bourbon, and the final results were consistent with what Front Street shared—identification reports found that Pink Bourbon is not a single, uniform variety. For example, "The Fourth Wave of Specialty Coffee" includes a 2022 Pink Bourbon identification report, which points out that only some Pink Bourbon is directly descended from Bourbon, while other Pink Bourbon is a cross of Typica, Ethiopian heirloom varieties, or even Geisha. Simply put, Pink Bourbon's lineage is not pure. It later became a regular at various competitions, like many other rare varieties, thanks to its distinctive flavor. To get a taste of Pink Bourbon, Front Street acquired a lot grown by the renowned Colombian estate Finca San洁, to see whether this bean is truly as alluring as its color.

Front Street Coffee: Colombia · Finca San洁 Pink Bourbon Country: Colombia Region: Huila Altitude: 1,650–1,850 meters Variety: Pink Bourbon Process: Honey process

Flavor: Berry, citrus, floral, oolong tea, grapefruit

To better appreciate the bean's own flavors, Front Street chose a medium-light roast profile, allowing the coffee to highlight its flavors while retaining enough sweetness. For this, the brewing needs parameters with relatively high extraction efficiency, as follows: 15g dose, 1:15 coffee-to-water ratio, grind setting of 75%–80% passing a No. 20 sieve, water temperature 92°C, extraction time 2 minutes.

During grinding, Front Street smelled dark berries and a grapefruit-like dry aroma. After brewing and tasting, one can perceive citrus, berries, grapefruit, and floral notes, with an oolong tea finish; the overall mouthfeel is full and clean, with a long aftertaste—quite excellent.

- END -

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