Coffee cherries of most varieties turn red when ripe, but the Yellow Bourbon variety is known for its yellow ripe fruit, and Yellow Bourbon is regarded as a precious variety in Brazil. This variety has received strong praise from coffee buyers and roasters in recent years, partly due to its unique and high-quality flavor characteristics, as well as its appearance differing from other varieties. Yellow Bourbon actually has a long history of cultivation, and it was brought to prominence in the Brazilian market.The Origin of Brazilian Yellow BourbonAs a coffee variety, Yellow Bourbon has been cultivated for nearly 100 years, but we trace it back further, to its paternal and maternal varieties. In the 1850s, Brazil became the world's leading coffee producer, and at that time it relied mainly on the Typica variety.(Typica began to be planted in Brazil in the 1720s)However, because Typica's yield was limited, Brazil's export volume was constrained to a certain extent. At this time, a Brazilian traveled to Réunion Island in the Indian Ocean east of Madagascar, aiming to obtain seeds of the Red Bourbon coffee variety, and ultimately succeeded in bringing them back to Brazil for planting. By the 1870s, Red Bourbon had become a very common variety in Brazilian growing regions.
But in 1871, something strange happened. In Botucatu(Botucatu)a mutation appeared in the coffee plantation of this growing region, producing yellow coffee fruit, which had never been seen in Brazil before, and there were no related records. So this mutation was named Yellow Botucatu at the time(Yello Botucatu)and later identification found it to be a mutation of Typica. However, this variety's yield was not high, so not many farmers were interested in it. Although some farmers began to grow this variety, it was only out of curiosity about the color of the fruit it produced.By 1930, inPederneiras in the northeast of São Paulo State, Brazil(Pederneiras)a coffee mutation bearing yellow fruit also appeared in a Bourbon plantation nearby. Many people believe this variety was the result of natural reproduction between Red Bourbon and Yellow Botucatu, because apart from its yellow fruit, it was very similar to Red Bourbon in all other respects, and its productivity was higher. So at the time people simply named it—Yellow Bourbon. And to distinguish it from the original Red Bourbon, the original Red Bourbon gained the alternative name "Red Bourbon."Because Yellow Bourbon's appearance attracted the attention of researchers at the Campinas Agricultural Institute (IAC), by 1942 they formally began research on Yellow Bourbon. It was ultimately proven to be a hybrid of Bourbon and Yellow Botucatu.In 1951, Professor Mendes from the same institute studied the yields of the varieties being grown at the time: Typica, Yellow Botucatu, Sumatra, Red Bourbon, Yellow Bourbon, and Maragogype, and ultimately found that Yellow Bourbon's yield was somewhat higher than the other varieties participating in the study.Despite such excellent results, the Yellow Bourbon variety never became a dominant variety in Brazil in the following decades.Although it was still commercially cultivated, adoption by farmers was not widespread. This was because varieties with higher yields than Yellow Bourbon appeared at the time, and although Yellow Bourbon had excellent flavor, at that time coffee flavor quality was not the core part of research; the focus remained on productivity, plant health, and resistance to pests and diseases—that is, how easy it was to grow. However, under the wave of specialty coffee and the third wave of coffee, Yellow Bourbon's characteristics began to have a stage on which to shine.Why is this variety yellow?In 1942, Professor Krug discovered the genetic origin of this color,and named it "Xanthocarpa." In Greek, "Xanthus" means yellow, and "carpus" means fruit.
Coffee fruit is a plant and contains a substance called "luteolin," which is a flavonoid that gives the fruit a yellow crystalline appearance. But whether the fruit color is specifically red or yellow is mainly determined by "anthocyanins"! "Anthocyanins" are divided into dominant genes and recessive genes.Coffee with the dominant XcXc gene will bear red fruit, but some fruit will have the recessive XCXC gene, and at this time, the original color of luteolin will show through, and the appearance of the fruit will be yellow.Characteristics of Yellow BourbonThe Yellow Bourbon tree can reach a height of up to 2.8 meters, and it matures relatively quickly. In 1945, IAC studied more than 30 Yellow Bourbon varieties, but now only seven are cultivated in Brazil.The reason is simple: because Yellow Bourbon has lower yield and weaker resistance to leaf rust, growing it may require more effort than other varieties. Yellow Bourbon is usually grown at altitudes above 1,000 meters, and its harvesting and processing require proper care in order to bring out the potential of this variety.Yellow Bourbon's flavor characteristics are very clear, with obvious aroma and very pronounced citrus acidity. It often has flavors such as ripe fruit and raisins. Researchers found that this has a certain relationship with its sucrose content, fat, and organic acids, and this is related to Yellow Bourbon's quality.New Highlights of Yellow BourbonIn 2005, IAC restarted research on this variety, but its attention shifted to the flavor experience in the cup. The 30 varieties studied in 1945 were collected again, and 16 of them scored over 85 in cupping, showing potential that should not be underestimated.In 2017, in a Cup of Excellence competition, Brazilian Yellow Bourbon scored 92.33 points in the natural category. This lot of coffee was sold at auction for $126 per pound, 100 times the futures price at the time.Queen Farm's Yellow Bourbon Coffee BeansOn Front Street Coffee's bean list there is also a very delicious Yellow Bourbon coffee bean, and it comes from the legendary Queen Farm.Queen Farm (Fazenda Rainha) (Queen Farm) is located in the Alta Mogiana region of São Paulo State, north of São Paulo city. This farm is very well known in Brazil and is owned by the Carvalho Dias family. The Carvalho Dias family owns four major farms, and since the first Brazilian COE competition in 1999 they have won awards every year, winning more than 12 times in 7 years. In 2004, they even took first place, ninth place, and eleventh place.In Brazil, a country dominated by yield-oriented mechanized farming, there are few specialty coffee farms like Queen Farm that use manual picking. Queen Farm is very small, covering only 280 mu, and 200 mu of that is entirely planted with Yellow Bourbon.One of the most important reasons Brazil uses semi-washed processing instead of traditional natural processing is that traditional natural processing cannot guarantee the quality of large quantities of coffee beans. Queen Farm, however, uses small-scale, refined natural processing, employing African-style raised beds for natural processing, and during the natural process there are dedicated workers to turn the beans and check their moisture content. This improves the quality of the coffee beans.Front Street Coffee Roasting AnalysisWhen Front Street Coffee received this Yellow Bourbon coffee from Brazil's Queen Farm, it roasted 4 batches in total and ultimately decided to discharge the beans two minutes after first crack. At this roast level, Brazil Queen Farm has obvious sweetness, but it is not a dull sweetness; in the background there is a faint lemon aroma, and this aroma is more prominent during the wet aroma stage. The finish shows obvious dark chocolate notes, and the overall experience is relatively round. While expressing Brazil's overall characteristics, it also retains a lively quality.The flavor has obvious sweetness, with rich nutty and peanut butter notes, and the finish shows obvious dark chocolate notes. The overall experience is relatively round. It is a coffee bean that can represent the overall characteristics of Brazilian coffee while also expressing its own unique liveliness. The above content is compiled by CoffeeHunters, a coffee news website.
