What does yellow bourbon coffee from Queen Estate taste like?

Yellow Bourbon coffee from Brazil's Queen Estate, in the Mogiana region of Sao Paulo state, is a naturally processed lot with notes of nuts, chocolate, cream, peanut, and sugarcane. The yellow cherries come from a genetic trait in the Bourbon variety, and the high-altitude farm, roughly 1,400 to 1,950 meters, lets the fruit accumulate more sugar.

The estate hand-picks ripe cherries and runs small refined batches, so most of the harvest reaches specialty grade, and the variety has placed in Brazil's Cup of Excellence competitions. A medium-dark roast brewed in a KONO dripper keeps the body full while holding onto the natural sweetness and light acidity.

Brazil Queen Estate Yellow Bourbon coffee beans are one of the most representative specialty coffees on Front Street Coffee's bean list. It is produced in the high-altitude Mogiana region of São Paulo state, processed naturally, with flavors dominated by nuts, chocolate, cream, and sugarcane sweetness. The Yellow Bourbon variety produces yellow cherries due to its unique genetics, accumulating rich fructose in high-altitude environments, and has won multiple awards in Brazil's Cup of Excellence competition. Front Street Coffee uses a medium-dark roast and brews with a KONO dripper, highlighting both the classic full-bodied aroma of Brazilian coffee and the natural sweetness and bright acidity of Bourbon. Whether hot pour-over or iced pour-over, you can experience its balanced, clean, and long-lasting finish.

The coffees on Front Street Coffee's bean list can be roughly divided into two categories: acidic and bitter, among which the full-bodied bitter ones include Jamaica Blue Mountain No. 1, Brazil Queen Estate, Indonesia Golden Mandheling, and Papua Bird of Paradise. Brazil Queen Estate coffee, with its cream and nut aromas and clear, sweet taste, is easy to accept even for those trying black coffee for the first time.

Front Street Coffee Brazil Queen Estate Yellow Bourbon Coffee Beans

Region: Mogiana Region

Estate: Queen Estate Fazenda Rainha

Altitude: 1400–1950m

Variety: Yellow Bourbon

Processing Method: Natural Process

Flavor: Nuts, Chocolate, Cream, Peanut, Sugarcane

Queen Estate is located in the Mogiana region of São Paulo state, Brazil. Unlike Brazil's large-scale regions that pursue yield, this area has higher altitudes and a unique microclimate. The estate insists on hand-picking cherries at the right ripeness, and each batch undergoes small-batch, refined processing, so most of the coffee beans produced reach specialty grade.

Queen Estate is most proud of its Yellow Bourbon variety, which has won multiple awards in Brazil's COE competition with its delicate and refined flavors. Common Bourbon coffee cherries gradually turn from green to slightly yellow, orange-yellow, red, and finally fully ripe dark red — this is what is usually called Red Bourbon. Red Bourbon grown at high altitudes has balanced flavors, rich aromas, and soft acidity. Front Street Coffee's daily Brazilian coffee staple beans are selected from Red Bourbon.

Yellow Bourbon does not turn cherry red at maturity but yellow, and was discovered in 1930. Later, researchers at the Campinas Agronomic Institute (IAC) found that plants with the dominant XcXc gene pair produce red berries; plants with the recessive xcxc gene pair produce yellow berries; and in rare cases, a combination of one dominant and one recessive Xcxc produces orange berries. Thus, the yellow color of Yellow Bourbon comes from color genetic selection. Yellow Bourbon grown at high altitudes contains large amounts of fructose, presenting a sweet and juicy flavor. It swept Brazil's "Cup of Excellence" competition for two consecutive years, almost taking all top three places, and became popular in the specialty coffee world.

After picking ripe Yellow Bourbon cherries, Queen Estate uses natural processing, allowing the coffee cherries to absorb more fruity sweetness during drying. Brazil is near the equator, and the harvest season coincides with the dry season, making coffee cherries very suitable for direct sun-drying and dehydration. However, the traditional "sun-baking method" is rough: after picking, cherries are spread directly on mud ground to dry, which easily mixes in earthy flavors, and uneven heating can also produce negative over-fermentation notes. Queen Estate first pours the coffee cherries into a water tank, removing underripe cherries through flotation, then dries them in small batches on African raised beds with better airflow, turning them periodically, thereby avoiding earthy and over-fermented flavors, and achieving even better sweetness than traditional natural processing.

Because Yellow Bourbon coffee beans grown at high altitudes are denser and higher in glucose, Front Street Coffee's roasting approach is to highlight the classic full-bodied aroma of Brazilian coffee while showcasing Bourbon's own sweetness. After multiple experiments and cupping comparisons, Front Street Coffee's Brazil Queen Estate coffee beans use a medium-dark roast. Below, Front Street Coffee will brew these two coffees. If you want to understand the taste of Brazilian coffee, you can refer to Front Street Coffee's pour-over method.

Medium roasting largely changes the internal structure of the beans, making them porous, and after grinding into coffee powder, they absorb water more strongly. If brewing parameters are not adjusted well, the coffee can easily over-extract and become bitter. To have enough aroma without over-extraction, the extraction rate needs to be reduced. Front Street Coffee uses a lower water temperature and coarser grind to reduce the release of bitter large molecules in the coffee. Combined with a KONO dripper for extraction, the coffee's body and roundness are improved.

Pour-over parameters: 87–88°C water temperature, medium grind (70% passing through China standard No. 20 sieve), coffee powder: 15g, coffee-to-water ratio 1:15, three-stage pouring

Wet the coffee bed with twice the amount of water as the coffee powder, forming a dome and letting it bloom for 30s, then pour in a small stream in circles from inside to outside until 125g, pause, wait for the coffee bed to drop to half the height of the dripper, continue pouring the third stage with the same fine stream until 225g, and after all the coffee liquid has filtered through, remove the dripper. The time is about 2 minutes. Finally, swirl the coffee liquid in the server to even it out and enjoy~

Flavor and mouthfeel: The pour-over Brazil Queen Estate Yellow Bourbon coffee shows aromas of dark chocolate, cream, peanut, and nuts. On the palate it is as sweet as sugarcane, with a balanced body, bright flavor, and a long-lasting finish in the mouth.

Many friends who enjoy iced coffee also ask Front Street Coffee how to make Queen Estate coffee into a delicious iced pour-over. To make the iced coffee both rich and refreshing, Front Street Coffee uses a 1:10 coffee-to-water ratio and adds 100g of ice cubes for cooling.

Dripper: KONO dripper, water temperature: 88°C, coffee dose: 15g, coffee-to-water ratio: 1:10

Water amount: 150ml, ice cubes: 100g, grind size: medium grind (80% passing through China standard No. 20 sieve)

Front Street Coffee first rinses the filter paper to make it fit the dripper better, pours out the water in the server and adds 100g of ice cubes. Pour twice the amount of water as the coffee powder into the dripper to wet the coffee bed, forming a dome and letting it bloom for 30s, then pour in a small stream in circles from inside to outside until 95g, pause, wait for the coffee bed to drop to half the height of the dripper, continue pouring the third stage with the same fine stream until 150g, and after all the coffee liquid has filtered through, remove the dripper. The time is about 1 minute 40 seconds.

Iced pour-over Brazil Queen Estate coffee has a faint fruity acidity, a very clear sucrose sweetness, and an obvious chocolate finish after drinking, with a clean and refreshing mouthfeel.

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