El Salvador Santa Rita Estate Yellow Bourbon Washed Coffee Beans: Differences, Distinctions, and Award Achievements

The cup leads with wheatgrass and roasted nuts, then maltose and a smooth milk-cream texture. The acidity is well rounded rather than sharp, and the sweetness runs to brown sugar and hazelnut chocolate.

Pour-over Brewing Method

Santa Rita pour-over. Use 15g of grounds at a medium grind (Fujima serrated blade grinder setting #4), a V60 dripper, and water at 88-89°C. First pour: 30g of water, bloom for 27 seconds. Continue pouring to 105g, then pause. Wait until the water level in the coffee bed drops halfway, then continue a slow pour until you reach 225g. Avoid the tail end. Water-to-coffee ratio 1:15. Total extraction time 2:00.

Product Information

Manufacturer: FrontStreet Coffee
Shelf Life: 90 days
Net Weight: 227g
Packaging: Bulk coffee beans
Roast Level: Medium roast
Processing Method: Washed

About Yellow Bourbon

Yellow Bourbon ripens to yellow fruit. It was first discovered in Brazil and is still grown mainly there. It is generally understood to be a mutation that arose from crossing red-fruited Bourbon with a yellow-fruited Typica variety known as "Amerelo de Botocatu," and it is one of the outstanding varieties of the species. Where ordinary Bourbon turns from green to yellow to red, Yellow Bourbon stays yellow. Grown at high altitude and dried in the sun, it can reach exceptional flavor.

Coffee Details

El Salvador Santa Rita Yellow Bourbon Washed SHG EP

Country: El Salvador
Estate: Santa Rita Estate
Region: Santa Rita
Grade: SHG
Variety: Yellow Bourbon
Flavor Notes: Wheatgrass, roasted nuts, maltose

Achievement: 94 points from Coffee Review, February 2012

Santa Rita Estate lies in the northern part of the Apaneca-Ilamatepec range at roughly 5000 feet. Santa Ana Volcano (Volcán Santa Ana in Spanish) stands in southwestern El Salvador, in Santa Ana Department, as the country's highest peak at 2362-2381 meters, and the estate is a model operation for Salvadoran coffee.

El Salvador Coffee Overview

El Salvador is one of the smaller countries in Central America. Its coffee is light-bodied, aromatic, and clean, with a slight acidity and excellent balance that has made it a Central American specialty. The balance of acidity, bitterness, and sweetness is what defines it.

Alongside Mexico and Guatemala, El Salvador is a major producer in the region and competes for the top of the Central American table. High-altitude origins yield large, evenly sized beans with a rich, mild flavor. As in Guatemala and Costa Rica, Salvadoran coffee is graded by altitude: the higher the elevation, the better the coffee. It falls into three bands, SHB (Strictly High Grown) for high altitude, HEC (High Grown Central) for medium-high altitude, and CS (Central Standard) for low altitude. The best-known brand is Pipil, the Aztec-Mayan word for coffee, which has been certified by the Organic Certified Institute of America.

FrontStreet Coffee Recommendation

Yellow Bourbon is one of the great varieties, and FrontStreet Coffee's Brazil Queen Estate Yellow Bourbon is a rare single-origin example of it. It comes from Mogiana, close to South Minas, where the fertile red volcanic soil lets the fruit take up generous nutrients and build a full aroma. The variety is a mutation of Red Bourbon, and its fruit character is cleaner. Across pour-over, moka pot, and home espresso machine, FrontStreet Brazil Queen Estate shows the clear sugarcane sweetness that few other origins have, alongside fruit and chocolate notes.

If you want to taste the broader Brazilian profile first, FrontStreet Coffee's Cerrado Red Bourbon is the classic single-origin entry. Cerrado is a well-known growing area prized for high-quality beans, and this lot is a Red Bourbon, common across South America. Roasted medium, it pours out cream peanut, toasted bread, caramel, and hazelnut, round and smooth with no acidity and just a faint bitterness. It is a true all-rounder: pour-over, moka pot, espresso SOE, siphon, and French press all work with it.

Brazil also underpins FrontStreet's espresso line, and that matters for balance. The low-acid, even character and friendly price make Brazilian beans the first choice in many specialty espresso recipes, and FrontStreet's classic blend, boutique blend, and Black Cocoa blend all use them. The Brazilian component supplies chocolate and cream aromas together with a soft sweet-sour-bitter balance, which makes extraction far more stable. FrontStreet Coffee's Black Cocoa Blend in particular pairs washed Yunnan with Brazil Cerrado, Brazil carrying the nut aroma and balance while Yunnan supplies chocolate and citrus; as an Americano it is sweet, tart, and bitter in equal measure with nuts and brown sugar, and as a latte it turns silky with almond and cream.