Where did the arabica Bourbon coffee come from and how do its colors differ?

Bourbon is one of the oldest Arabica varieties, a natural mutation of Typica that spread from Yemen to Bourbon Island, now Réunion, and then to Africa and Central and South America. Local microclimates produced color mutations: Red, Yellow, Orange, Pink, and striped Bourbon, each with its own cultivation traits and flavor profile.

World Coffee Research classifies Bourbon within the Bourbon-Typica Group, with genetic origins in Yemen. French missionaries carried Yemen Bourbon coffee onward, and that line became known as French Mission Bourbon. Beans such as Front Street's Brazil Cerrado and Brazil Queen show how these varieties perform in the cup.

Bourbon is one of the oldest Arabica varieties, spreading from Réunion Island to Africa and Central and South America, where it evolved under local microclimates into various color mutations including red, yellow, orange, pink, and striped. This article traces the origin of the Bourbon variety and its missionary-driven propagation routes, explains in detail the discovery history, cultivation characteristics, and flavor differences of each colored Bourbon, and presents the brewing performance of Front Street's Brazil Cerrado, Brazil Queen, and other Bourbon beans. Whether you are a beginner just getting into specialty coffee or an enthusiast looking to deepen your knowledge of varieties, you will find a complete overview of Bourbon coffee and a tasting reference here.

For more specialty coffee knowledge, please follow the WeChat public account: Front Street Coffee (FrontStreet Coffee)

When we talk about the Bourbon coffee variety, what first catches the eye is often the color of its fruit. Besides the most common Red Bourbon, there are also Yellow Bourbon, Orange Bourbon, and the rarer Pink Bourbon.

Bourbon belongs to a secondary variety produced by a mutation of Typica, and together with Typica they are ranked as the oldest surviving coffee varieties, both falling under the Arabica species branch. Tracing the spread of Arabica: Typica's ancestors crossed the oceans to reach the Caribbean, while the East India Company introduced Arabica from Yemen to Bourbon Island (now Réunion Island). The coffee trees growing there gradually diverged from Typica, forming the Bourbon variety, which then spread to East African countries such as Kenya and Tanzania, and eventually extended to Central and South America.

The World Coffee Research states that Bourbon originated in Yemen and is a natural mutation of Typica, with its genetic origin classified under the Bourbon-Typica Group.

The story of Bourbon coffee begins with the French. The name comes from a colonial island of 17th-century France in the western Indian Ocean off the coast of Africa, about 680 kilometers east of Madagascar—Bourbon Island. The global distribution journey of Yemen Bourbon coffee, initiated by French missionaries, was relatively early known to the world and documented in historical records, so this batch of Bourbon coffee, carrying the mission of evangelism and pioneering, was called French Mission Bourbon.

The French settled on Bourbon Island in 1663. In the early 18th century, the French introduced Yemen coffee to Bourbon Island for cultivation (now Réunion Island), and named this batch of Yemen coffee Bourbon coffee.

Historical records show that the French attempted three times—in 1708, 1715, and 1718—to introduce this coffee from Yemen to Bourbon Island. Bourbon Island thus became the nursery where the French cultivated Yemen Bourbon coffee in the 18th century. It was not until the mid-19th century that Bourbon coffee was taken off the island to be planted in Africa and Brazil in South America, and gradually spread widely.

In the mid-19th century, French Holy Spirit missionaries arrived in Africa and established a mission on French Réunion Island in 1841. Along with the missionaries' evangelistic journeys, Bourbon coffee began to be taken to Africa and South America for planting.

As for its introduction to the Americas, in 1860 the French brought Bourbon coffee from Réunion Island to South America, first arriving near Campinas in southern Brazil. Because the Typica variety introduced to Brazil in 1727 had low yields and was susceptible to pests and diseases, Bourbon entered Brazil around 1860 via Campinas in the south and quickly expanded northward to other regions of South and Central America. Today in Latin America, although most Bourbon plantings have been replaced by its mutations (especially Caturra, Catuai, and Mundo Novo), it is still grown in countries such as El Salvador, Guatemala, Costa Rica, and Peru.

Moving on to Africa, around the same years as the spread of Brazilian coffee, a French missionary played an important role in the spread of the Bourbon variety in Africa.

In 1862, French missionaries established missions in Bagamoyo on the coast of Tanzania (then called Tanganyika) and St. Augustine in Kenya (now Kikuyu). In 1893, French missionaries established another mission in Bura, Kenya (Taita Hills, Kenya). In this way, Bourbon coffee spread from Bourbon Island to several African regions including Zanzibar, Bagamoyo, St. Augustine, and Bura, establishing new churches. In these missionary tasks, the missionaries sowed coffee seeds from Bourbon Island in East African parishes, and the African continent has had Bourbon coffee ever since.

The Bourbon coffee brought by French missionaries to the Americas and Africa for planting took root and thrived under the microclimates and soils of various countries, multiplying and becoming one of today's stars of specialty coffee. To taste the classic Red Bourbon flavor, Front Street Brazil Cerrado coffee is recommended. It uses a semi-washed (pulped natural) process, presenting a balanced and rich flavor profile with low acidity and a smooth mouthfeel, easy to accept even for first-time tasters.

In the 1860s, the first batch of Bourbon coffee took root in Brazil. After nearly a century of propagation in the Americas, Bourbon coffee began to produce mutated varieties. These mutations mentioned by Front Street are all associated with beautiful colors—namely Red Bourbon, Yellow Bourbon, Orange Bourbon, and Pink Bourbon.

Red Bourbon: its coffee cherries gradually change color from green, to slightly yellow, to slightly orange, to ripe red, and then to a more mature dark red. To distinguish it from other Bourbon varieties (Yellow Bourbon, Pink Bourbon, etc.), it is called Red Bourbon. Bourbon grown at high altitudes usually has better aroma and bright acidity, with a flavor even reminiscent of red wine.

As early as 1850, Brazil had already become a major global coffee producer, heavily relying on the Typica variety introduced in 1720. But Typica had low yields, so to ensure profits, Brazil introduced the Bourbon variety from Réunion—that is, Red Bourbon—and planted it on a large scale.

Yellow Bourbon was first discovered in Brazil and currently grows mainly there; it is a Bourbon mutation unique to São Paulo state in Brazil. Its cherries do not turn red when ripe but instead show an orange-yellow color, hence the name Yellow Bourbon, and it can be called a treasure of Brazilian coffee. Yellow Bourbon came from crossing Bourbon with other varieties; because of its lower yield and lower tolerance to wind and rain, it was not widely planted. However, when grown at high altitudes, its flavor performance is excellent, and it has become more common in recent years. Yellow Bourbon's sweetness and aroma are more pronounced than Red Bourbon's, and it has a clear citrus acidity. At Front Street, there is a Brazil Yellow Bourbon coffee bean (Brazil Queen), whose beans are inherently sweet and clean, with soft acidity and sweetness fitting well together, good balance, and tropical fruit aromas.

The first Yellow Bourbon appeared in 1930 on a Red Bourbon farm near the city of Pederneiras (SP). Many believe this was the result of natural reproduction between Red Bourbon and Yellow Botucatu. Apart from the yellow berries, the plant is very similar to Red Bourbon and has been shown to have the same or even higher yield. Yellow Bourbon matures faster, but its yield is lower than Red Bourbon's, and its resistance to leaf rust is also weaker than Red Bourbon's.

Orange Bourbon is a natural mutation of the Bourbon coffee fruit color gene, first discovered in El Salvador.

Pink Bourbon: the cherries are usually peach-red or pink, sometimes also called "Pink Bourbon." Pink Bourbon is a rather rare new variety, developed by crossing Red Bourbon and Yellow Bourbon. The reason Pink Bourbon is said to be rare is mainly that maintaining this 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 selected hybrid pollen grains, there are both yellow genes tending toward Yellow Bourbon and red genes tending toward Red Bourbon, and these are all recessive genes that easily interfere with each other. Pink Bourbon can currently be seen in Colombia and Guatemala.

Besides these main-color Bourbons, there are also Bourbon mutations on the market, such as Stripped Bourbon, translated into Chinese as 条纹波旁. Like Chili Bourbon, it is a unique variety discovered in recent years in Colombia's Huila region. Although the color of its cherries after fruiting is very similar to ordinary Red Bourbon, a closer look reveals yellow stripes on them, so the estate owner who discovered it named it Striped Bourbon.

According to Front Street's research, Striped Bourbon is a variety that naturally mutated from the old Bourbon variety and was first discovered in Colombia by Australia's Project Origin team. Compared with coffee trees growing in the same area, Striped Bourbon matures relatively later, has a thinner tree shape, and sparser branches, so its yield is not considered high. But it inherits the citrus and clean sweetness characteristic of the Bourbon variety, especially often showing berry and brown sugar aromas when lightly roasted.

Having said so much, what exactly does Bourbon coffee taste like? Bourbon coffee has complex acidity and wonderful balance. Front Street Coffee's Bourbon brews have outstanding sweetness, with a caramel-like texture, crisp acidity, and floral notes. But depending on where it is grown, it presents completely different flavors. For example, Bourbon coffee from El Salvador may have more creamy and toffee notes; Orange Bourbon has brighter floral aromas; Yellow Bourbon has more pronounced acidity and dried fruit flavors; while African Bourbon coffee has more prominent fruity notes.

Red Bourbon: taking Front Street Brazil Cerrado as an example, it has an obvious sweetness on entry, accompanied by a faint lemon aroma and rich nutty flavors, with a distinct dark chocolate note in the finish, giving an overall rounded impression.

Yellow Bourbon: taking Front Street Brazil Queen coffee beans as an example, it has the fresh sweetness of sugarcane juice, black tea, and a soft, smooth fruit sweetness, with obvious nutty flavors, balanced and gentle acidity, a weak and clean bitterness, rich chocolate aroma and nutty flavors, and a bright, refreshing, smooth, and delicate mouthfeel.

Pink Bourbon: fresh floral aromas with distinct layers, obvious citrus and cherry tomato aromas; even after the temperature drops, the acidity remains soft, with a caramel sweetness in the finish and a smooth, clean mouthfeel.

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