Is Pink Bourbon One of the Arabica Coffee Varieties?

Pink Bourbon sits within the arabica coffee varieties group, but its genetics are debated. Bourbon itself descends from Typica and spread through Central and South America after reaching Brazil in 1927. Besides the common Red Bourbon, there is Yellow Bourbon, whose cherries ripen orange-yellow, and the rarer Pink Bourbon, which shares Bourbon's round bean shape and high-altitude flavor.

Bourbon yields less than some modern varieties yet resists leaf rust better than Typica. Grown high, it shows layered flavor, strong aroma and soft acidity. Yellow Bourbon is unique to Sao Paulo state in Brazil; the Queen Estate lot from Mogiana, grown at 1,400 to 1,950 meters and naturally processed, tastes of nuts, chocolate, cream, peanut and sugarcane.

Bourbon is one of the important parent species of Arabica coffee, derived from Typica, and is now widely cultivated in Central and South America. Besides the common Red Bourbon, there is also Yellow Bourbon, which ripens to an orange-yellow color, as well as the even rarer Pink Bourbon. Is Pink Bourbon actually a Bourbon? What are the theories about its genetic origins? And what is special about its flavor? This article will start with the origin and spread of Bourbon, sort out the differences between Red Bourbon, Yellow Bourbon, and Pink Bourbon, and introduce the Brazil Queen Estate Yellow Bourbon coffee beans recommended by Front Street Coffee, including the producing region, processing method, flavor description, and pour-over parameters, to help coffee lovers fully understand this rare variety.

The Bourbon variety evolved from the ancient Typica, and its beans are relatively round in shape. It was introduced to Brazil in 1927 and then gradually spread throughout Central and South America. Although its yield is not particularly high, compared with the delicate Typica, Bourbon has stronger resistance to leaf rust. Bourbon grown at high altitudes has rich, delicate flavor layers, intense aroma, and acidity that feels soft and pleasant. The Bourbon cherries we usually see gradually transition from green to slightly yellow, orange-yellow, red, and finally fully ripe dark red, which is what we commonly call Red Bourbon. However, in Brazil there is another Bourbon variant whose ripe fruit is orange-yellow—Yellow Bourbon, a variety unique to the state of São Paulo.

Yellow Bourbon (Bourbon Amarello), also written in English as Yellow Bourbon, is a yellow-fruited Bourbon variant unique to São Paulo, Brazil. Generally speaking, coffee cherries turn red when ripe, but Yellow Bourbon does not turn red after ripening; instead, it takes on an orange-yellow color, hence the name. Yellow Bourbon performs quite elegantly in cupping, with sweetness, aroma, and acidity all relatively prominent. The Front Street Brazil Queen Estate coffee beans use precisely this rare Yellow Bourbon.

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

After consulting materials, Front Street learned that the foundation of global Arabica coffee varieties consists of Typica and Bourbon, as well as the descendants they produced. Bourbon is mainly distributed in Central and South American countries and is also one of Brazil's main varieties. The name Bourbon comes from Bourbon Island, which is today's Réunion Island off the east coast of Africa. In the seventeenth century, it was a French territory named Bourbon Island, and it was not renamed until the late eighteenth century. In the eighteenth century, the French introduced round coffee beans from Yemen to Bourbon Island, allowing them to take root and grow locally. In 1860, Brazil brought round Bourbon back to the country for cultivation, and it subsequently spread to countries throughout Central and South America, becoming the oldest parent coffee variety in Latin America.

Bourbon cherries are short and round, and the coffee beans have relatively high density. Bourbon grown in high-altitude environments has good sweetness and bright acidity. Like Typica, it is an ancient, excellent variety, but its resistance to leaf rust is stronger than that of Typica, and its flavor is no less impressive. From flowering to fruit ripening, the common Bourbon gradually changes color from green to slightly yellow, red, and finally 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 relatively rare yellow or pink—namely Yellow Bourbon and Pink Bourbon.

There is another theory about the genetic origin of Pink Bourbon. Some research suggests that Pink Bourbon is a natural hybrid of Colombia and Caturra. Caturra itself is a Bourbon variant, while the Colombia variety is a coffee tree that Colombia has focused on promoting and cultivating. Because it carries some Robusta genes, its advantages are obvious: high yield and resistance to leaf rust. The drawback is that its flavor performance is relatively mediocre, lacking delicate sweet-and-sour notes.

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 final color of the coffee cherry is determined by recessive genes in the pollen grains. Among the pollen grains selected by coffee farmers for hybridization, some may carry the yellow gene tending toward Yellow Bourbon, while others may carry the red gene tending toward Red Bourbon, and these are all recessive genes that easily interfere with one another.

The “yellow” of Yellow Bourbon is determined by genetic selection for color genes. Yellow Bourbon planted at high altitudes accumulates a large amount of fructose and can present a sweet, juicy, refined flavor, which is why it has repeatedly achieved excellent rankings in Brazil's Cup of Excellence (COE) competition.

After picking ripe Yellow Bourbon coffee cherries, Queen Estate uses the natural process, allowing the coffee cherries to absorb more sweetness from the pulp during drying. Brazil is close to the equator, and the harvest season happens to fall in the dry season, making coffee cherries very suitable for direct dehydration and drying through sun exposure. However, the traditional “sun-drying method” is a very rough process: after picking, the cherries are directly spread on the dirt to dry, and the resulting coffee is prone to picking up earthy flavors; uneven heating can also produce negative notes of over-fermentation. Queen Estate's approach is to first pour the coffee cherries into a water tank and remove insufficiently ripe cherries through flotation, then place the coffee in small batches on African raised beds with better breathability and turn it irregularly, thereby avoiding earthy flavors and over-fermented notes, while achieving even greater sweetness than the traditional natural method.

Because Yellow Bourbon coffee beans grown 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 multiple experiments and cupping comparisons, Front Street's Brazil Queen Estate coffee beans use a medium-dark roast. After medium roasting, the internal structure of the coffee beans changes considerably and becomes porous, making the ground coffee more absorbent. If the brewing parameters are not adjusted well, the coffee can easily become over-extracted and bitter. To give the coffee enough aroma without over-extraction, the extraction rate needs to be reduced. 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.

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

Use twice the amount of water relative to the coffee grounds to wet the coffee bed, form a dome, and let it bloom for 30s. Then pour in a thin stream in circles from the inside out until 125g, pause, and when the coffee bed drops to half the height of the dripper, continue pouring the third stage with the same thin stream until 225g. Once all the coffee liquid has filtered through, 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 pour-over Brazil Queen Estate Yellow Bourbon coffee presents aromas of dark chocolate, cream, peanut, 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.