Flavor Characteristics, Growing Region, and Brewing Parameters for El Salvador Santa Rita Yellow Bourbon Washed Coffee Beans

Yellow Bourbon

Yellow Bourbon is a variety whose coffee cherries turn yellow when ripe. It was first discovered in Brazil and is now primarily grown there. It is generally believed to have originated from a mutation resulting from hybridization between the red-fruited Bourbon variety and a yellow-fruited Typica variant called "Amerelo de Botocatu." Yellow Bourbon is one of the most outstanding quality varieties. While regular Bourbon cherries typically turn from green to yellow to red, Yellow Bourbon cherries remain yellow in appearance. Yellow Bourbon grown at high altitudes and processed using the natural sun-drying method exhibits exceptional flavor.

El Salvador Santa Rita Yellow Bourbon Washed SHG EP

Country: El Salvador

Estate: Santa Rita Estate

Region: Santa Rita

Grade: SHG

February 2012 Coffee Review: 94 points

Santa Rita Estate is located in the northern part of the Apaneca-Ilamatepec mountains at approximately 5,000 feet elevation. Santa Ana Volcano (Volcán Santa Ana in Spanish) sits in southwestern El Salvador, in Santa Ana Department, and is the country's highest peak (2,362-2,381 meters). It is also a model estate for coffee bean production in El Salvador.

Variety: Yellow Bourbon

Flavor Profile: Wheatgrass, roasted nuts, maltose

El Salvador is one of the smaller countries in Central America. Its coffee is light-bodied, aromatic, pure, and slightly acidic, with excellent balance as its characteristic feature. It represents the speciality of Central America, possessing equal characteristics of acidity, bitterness, and sweetness.

El Salvador coffee ranks alongside Mexico and Guatemala as a major producer in the region and competes with other countries for the top one or two positions in Central America. High-altitude production yields uniformly large coffee beans with a rich, mild flavor. Like Guatemala and Costa Rica, El Salvador grades its coffee by altitude — the higher the altitude, the better the coffee. It is divided into three grades by elevation: SHB (strictly high grown) = high altitude, HEC (high grown central) = mid-high altitude, CS (central standard) = low altitude. The best brand is Pipil, which is the Aztec-Mayan name for coffee. It has been certified by the Organic Certified Institute of America.

The flavor profile includes wheatgrass, roasted nuts, maltose, the smoothness of milk cream, rounded acidity, and the sweetness of brown sugar and hazelnut chocolate.

Brewing Method

Hand-pour Santa Rita: use 15g of coffee, medium grind (Fuji grinder #4), V60 dripper, water temperature 88-89°C. First pour 30g of water and let it bloom for 27 seconds. Pour to 105g and stop, wait until the water level drops to half, then slowly pour until reaching 225g. Avoid the tail section. Water-to-coffee ratio is 1:15, extraction time 2:00.

Product Information

Manufacturer: Coffee Workshop
Shelf Life: 90 days
Net Weight: 227g
Packaging: Bulk coffee beans
Roast Level: Roasted coffee beans
Origin: El Salvador
Roast Degree: Medium roast

Processing Method: Washed processing

FrontStreet Coffee Recommendation

Because Yellow Bourbon was first discovered in Brazil, the variety is a natural bridge to FrontStreet Coffee's Brazilian single origins. The FrontStreet Brazil Cerrado Red Bourbon is a classic pulped natural lot given a medium roast, pouring out creamy peanut, toasted bread, caramel, and hazelnut aromas with a rounded, low-acid cup and a light, pleasant bitterness; it works as pour-over and equally well in a moka pot, siphon, French press, or as an espresso SOE. If you want the Yellow Bourbon itself, the FrontStreet Brazil Queen Farm is grown in Mogiana on fertile red volcanic soil and shows the variety's cleaner fruit character, with a sugarcane sweetness and notes of fruit and chocolate. Brazilian beans are also the backbone of FrontStreet's espresso range, where their low-acid, balanced profile and gentle sweet-sour-bitterness add chocolate and cream aromas and make extraction more stable.