What makes Yellow Bourbon coffee beans low in acidity?

Brazil's Queen's Farm Yellow Bourbon is a fit for drinkers who want nutty and cocoa notes without sharp acidity. Grown in the high-altitude Mogiana region, it carries natural sweetness and a brown-sugar finish. On the palate it stays rich in nut and cocoa flavor, balanced and smooth, with the acidity kept low rather than bright.

Two factors shape that cup. The farm runs an estate management system, handling cultivation through processing itself, so quality stays consistent instead of varying with pooled cherries from smallholders. The pulped natural method also leaves some mucilage on the bean during drying, which supports the body and brown-sugar sweetness typical of Brazilian coffee notes.

For those who enjoy nutty and cocoa notes but don't want a noticeably acidic cup, the Yellow Bourbon from Brazil's Queen's Farm is often an unavoidable choice. It comes from Brazil's high-altitude Mogiana region, carrying a natural sweetness and a brown-sugar-like finish, making it highly recognizable among Brazilian beans. This article focuses on the Brazilian Queen's Farm Yellow Bourbon coffee beans offered by Front Street Coffee, covering the farm's background, the characteristics of the Yellow Bourbon variety, the pulped natural processing method, as well as Front Street's green bean analysis, roasting insights, and cafe brewing parameters, helping coffee lovers understand why this bean presents a rich nutty and cocoa flavor with a balanced, smooth, and non-acidic taste, and providing a replicable pour-over extraction approach.

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The Carvalho Dias family is a prestigious and respected coffee family in the coffee world. Since the first Brazil COE competition was held in 1999, the four farms under this family have appeared on the list almost every year, winning more than twelve times in seven years; in 2004, they even took the champion, ninth place, and eleventh place all at once. Many large and small farms in Brazil take pride in entering this competition, while Queen's Farm has won awards for many consecutive years, which also indirectly confirms that its quality is far above that of ordinary Brazilian coffee beans.

Among the two Front Street Brazilian coffee beans currently offered by Front Street Coffee (FrontStreet Coffee), one is exactly the Front Street Brazilian Queen's Farm Yellow Bourbon coffee beans from Queen's Farm. Compared with coffee beans from other Brazilian producing regions, Queen's Farm's beans have a distinctive sweetness: they have the rich nutty and cocoa notes typical of Brazilian regions, and a brown-sugar-like sweetness emerges at the finish, making it quite a pleasant surprise to drink.

There are two main reasons why it can present such flavors. First, Queen's Farm implements an estate management system, completing everything from cultivation to processing itself, so it does not have to be constrained by differences in source like when coffee cherries from different smallholders are purchased and processed together, making quality naturally more stable. Second, the farm's main variety is Yellow Bourbon, a variety with balanced and gentle acidity, weak and clean bitterness, and an overall bright and refreshing character.

Queen's Farm (Fazenda Rainha) is located in the Mogiana region, at an altitude of about 1400-1950 meters. With superior geographical conditions and a pleasant climate, it is a rare ideal origin for specialty coffee, and it is currently managed by agricultural engineer José Renato G. Dias, who specializes in coffee production.

At Queen's Farm, all workers live on the farm, so the farm has abolished the temporary employment system and provides appropriate assistance such as health plans and unlimited hospital care for workers. Recently, the workers also built the second unit of the Pedro Roza IT school, as well as a small chapel designed by Oscar Niemayer. Fazenda Rainha's environmental policy is based on coordinating production and environmental protection. It is a property certified by BSCA and also adopts the UTZ-certified social and environmental management system. It has been shortlisted in the Cup of Excellence competition for many years.

Yellow Bourbon Coffee Variety

The varieties planted on this farm include Yellow Bourbon, Icatu, Yellow Catuai, Mundo Novo, and Acaiá, and the coffee beans produced all have BSCA and Utz certification. However, the farm's main variety is still Yellow Bourbon. According to the farm, about 200 hectares of land are planted with Yellow Bourbon.

Yellow Bourbon is a Bourbon mutation unique to São Paulo State, Brazil. After ripening, its fruit does not turn red but instead takes on an orange-yellow color, hence the name "Yellow Bourbon." The beans of this variety are naturally sweet and clean. Using the natural method (or pulped natural) will slightly restrain the acidity, yet it combines very well with sweetness and carries tropical fruit aromas.

Characteristics of the Pulped Natural Processing Method

The pulped natural processing method is a coffee bean processing method originally created in Brazil. Some areas of Brazil are rainy, and natural coffee beans are prone to mold. In order to shorten processing time, the pulped natural method (Pulped Natural) was born.

The pulped natural method first removes the skin and pulp of the coffee cherries, which allows control over the fermentation degree of the mucilage-covered coffee beans; traditional natural processing dries the beans together with the skin and pulp, making it impossible to observe the fermentation progress of the mucilage. Pulped natural sits between natural and washed, but it omits the "tank fermentation and clean water rinsing" steps of washed processing, instead placing the beans directly in the sun to dry.

It seems like only the steps are similar, but without the fermentation step, the flavor of the coffee beans is completely different. When removing the skin and pulp in pulped natural processing, fully ripe pulp falls off easily, while the skin of unripe green cherries is not easy to handle, so this can be used as an opportunity for a second screening to filter out unripe fruits and unify the ripeness of the coffee cherries. Front Street believes that compared with the natural method, coffee beans selected and processed in this way will have improved cleanliness and ripeness, and the taste will also be more uniform.

Front Street Brazilian Queen's Farm Coffee Green Bean Analysis

Front Street Coffee (FrontStreet Coffee) has noticed that the Front Street Queen's Farm coffee beans themselves have relatively low density, moderate moisture content, soft bean texture, and a relatively thin thickness from the bean surface to the core, so they are not suitable for roasting at too high a temperature, otherwise a burnt bitter taste easily appears. We choose to drop the beans at medium heat, maintain the heat to enter the dehydration stage, and make slight adjustments as the temperature rises after first crack begins, promoting a more complete caramelization reaction. This semi-washed bean rises slowly in temperature after first crack, and can be dropped near second crack, bringing the coffee beans to a medium-dark roast level.

Front Street Brazilian Queen's Farm Coffee Roasting Insights

Front Street Brazilian Yellow Bourbon roasting recommendation: Yangjia 800N, 550g bean charge: preheat to 200 degrees and drop in, adjust heat to 150, open airflow to 3, turning point at 1'30", maintain heat, turn yellow at 5'10", grassy smell disappears, enter dehydration stage, lower heat to 125, open airflow to 3.5. At 8'20" dehydration is complete, bean surface shows wrinkles and dark streaks, toast aroma turns into coffee aroma, which is the prelude to first crack. At 178 degrees, lower heat to 80. At this time, pay attention to listening for the sound of first crack. First crack begins at 9'14", open airflow fully to 5. After first crack, development time is 3'00, drop at 201 degrees.

Front Street Brazilian Queen's Farm Coffee Brewing Recommendations

Medium-dark roasted coffee beans have a loose structure, and the substances in the coffee beans are extracted more easily. Therefore, Front Street Coffee (FrontStreet Coffee) recommends using lower-temperature hot water and medium-coarse grinding when brewing Front Street Brazilian coffee.

Front Street cafe output parameters: use Kono dripper, water temperature: 88°C, dose: 15 grams, coffee-to-water ratio: 1:15, grind size: medium-fine grind (70-75% passing rate on Chinese standard No. 20 sieve)

The extraction method is as follows: pour 30 grams of water in the first stage for blooming, with a blooming time of 30 seconds; pour water to about 125 grams in the second stage, then wait for the coffee liquid to drop; when it drops to half, pour the final stage of water to 225 grams; wait for all the coffee to finish dripping before ending extraction. The total extraction time is generally about 2 minutes 10 seconds.

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