Brazil Yellow Bourbon Coffee Bean Brand Recommendations - Where to Buy Delicious and Affordable Yellow Bourbon Coffee Beans?

Brazil Yellow Bourbon Coffee Beans - Estate and Brand Recommendations

A super cost-effective natural-process Bourbon variety, with an affordable price and a mellow flavor. Worth trying.

Estate Introduction

This coffee comes from Fazenda Rainha (Queen Estate), which covers 280 acres and is located in an ancient volcanic valley in Brazil called Vale da Grama.

In 2011, the estate won the championship in Brazil's Cup of Excellence (COE) competition. Fazenda Rainha belongs to the renowned and respected Carvalho Dias family. The four major estates under Carvalho Dias have won awards every year since the first Brazil COE competition in 1999, winning more than 12 times in 7 years. In 2004, they even swept the championship, 9th place, 11th place, and more, surpassing many estates large and small across Brazil.

For many years, other estates have hoped to be selected for awards but found it difficult. The estates under this family, however, have won multiple awards year after year. Even Fazenda Rainha, purchased this time, has an impressive record: 2nd place in 2000, 3rd place in 2001, and 29th place in 2005. To date, Queen Estate has won awards three times.

The Carvalho Dias family are also founding members of the Brazilian Specialty Coffee Association, and their commitment to coffee quality and environmental protection is evident. On their family farms they use natural waterfalls to develop pollution-free hydroelectric power, meeting their own electricity needs self-sufficiently (another award-winning estate under the family is named after this waterfall, Waterfall Estate). They have built churches, classrooms, nurseries, and medical stations, and they insist on preserving original forest with native flora and fauna as well as continuous reforestation. Queen Estate is a good example: environmental protection there is thorough. Because of its higher altitude and non-plains terrain, machines cannot be used for harvesting, so all the fruit is picked entirely by hand. They also grow low-yield, high-quality Bourbon varieties, making it a representative estate of premium Brazilian coffee.

Queen Estate's Coffee Processing System

Mature cherry fruits are hand-picked into cloth bags to avoid falling to the ground and touching soil. Coffee harvested on a given day must reach the estate's processing facility the same day for pulped natural processing. Hand-picking and cloth bags for the harvested fruit avoid earthy flavors and any improper fermentation. When the fruit arrives at the processing facility, it immediately undergoes "washing": the cherries are washed clean, and unqualified or dried fruits (bóia beans) are screened out by bean size. The qualifying beans that pass screening then go through pulping in a pulper machine.

The estate has 200 acres of Yellow Bourbon coffee trees. The rolling mountainous terrain makes large-scale mechanical harvesting impossible, so all the coffee here must be hand-picked.

The estate uses the pulped natural processing method, followed by drying on drying racks and mechanical roasting. After mechanical screening, manual screening is also required. The large amount of work means farm employees live on the farm year-round. All employees and their families enjoy benefits in housing, healthcare, and education here.

The estate is a member of a medium-sized farm organization in the local Grama Valley, mainly exporting specialty coffee of the Bourbon variety. The organization's office is located in nearby Pocos de Caldas, and it also has a national cupping laboratory equipped with a large warehouse. The organization also collaborates with local universities and other institutions on research, including Lavras University; the famous Dr. Flavio Borem comes from this university's Agricultural Research Center.

Queen Estate Award Records:

• 2014 COE Cup of Excellence - 13th Place
• 2013 COE Cup of Excellence - 2nd Place
• 2012 COE Cup of Excellence - 8th Place
• 2011 COE Cup of Excellence - Champion
• 2010 COE Cup of Excellence - 20th Place
• 2009 COE Cup of Excellence - 6th Place
• 2008 COE Cup of Excellence - 14th Place

Related Knowledge

The Cup of Excellence (COE) project and trademark are currently owned and managed by the Alliance for Coffee Excellence (ACE), a non-profit organization from the United States. ACE works with COE host countries each year to complete the cupping selection and online auction of specialty coffees, while also recommending and promoting anything related to coffee quality improvement. The goal is to select exemplary specialty coffees in host countries and exchange experience for the industry to learn from.

Brazil Queen Estate

• Country: Brazil, Region: São Paulo state near São Sebastião da Grama
• Estate Name: Fazenda Rainha (Queen Estate)
• Owner: Regina Helena Mello de Carvalho Dias, belonging to the Carvalho Dias family
• Variety: Yellow Bourbon
• Processing: Hand-picked, then pulped natural processing
• Origin: Brazil Queen Estate (Mogiana) region
• Altitude: 1400-1950m
• Processing Method: Pulped natural / Natural
• Flavor: Sweet beans, clean, pulped natural processing makes its acidity slightly bright but well-balanced with sweetness, some even have tropical fruit aromas

This bean is 100% Yellow Bourbon variety, whose origin can be traced back to Bourbon's birthplace, Reunion Island near Madagascar. In the 18th century, French explorers first brought coffee there, so this variety has another name: French Missionary. In the 20th century, it was brought to the African continent and then introduced to Brazil. Its derivative varieties are now spread throughout Africa and America. The Bourbon variety grown in Brazil shows yellow fruits due to the influence of recessive genes.

The processing method uses the Cerezadescascado method (depulping method) invented in Brazil. This natural processing method, similar to honey processing, makes the coffee flavor rounder, with effects between washed processing and full natural processing. During processing, a small amount of water is first used to remove the pulp and skin, then the coffee is placed directly on drying racks for sun-drying, with constant turning to ensure all the coffee contacts sunlight. After several days of drying, mechanical drying is performed to reach the appropriate moisture content.

The processed beans have relatively stable properties and can be stored for a long time. The moisture content is lower, and the beans are relatively large, with 98% of beans reaching size 16 or above and half reaching size 18.

Green beans have a very rich fermented berry aroma when smelled.

Bourbon Coffee Bean Roasting Analysis

The green beans have a solid texture and excellent flavor performance, with slight orange peel and spice notes.

Green bean moisture content: 9.9%.

These beans have a relatively low moisture content, which makes their heat absorption strong. The roasting plan is therefore to start at 200°C, then use high heat and low airflow to speed up dehydration. After the dehydration stage ends, use medium airflow and medium heat for the Maillard reaction, without rushing the time, and finish near the end of first crack.

After trial roasting 4 times, the optimal choice was determined to be between 1 minute 45 seconds and 2 minutes after the end of first crack. The flavor has obvious sweetness, but not a boring sweetness, with a faint lemon aroma in the background that is more prominent in the wet aroma stage. The later stage shows an obvious dark chocolate flavor, with an overall rounded feeling that embodies the characteristics of Brazilian coffee while keeping it lively.

Batch size: 550g.

Cupping

• Dry Aroma: Roasted hazelnut, cinnamon
• Wet Aroma: Slight tropical fruit aroma, cream, cane sugar
• Flavor: Delicate nutty flavor, fruity, creamy peanut

Pour-over Record:

Reference

Brazil Queen Estate. 15g coffee, medium grind (Fuji Royal ghost-tooth burr #4), V60 dripper, 88-89°C water temperature. First pour 30g water for a 27-second bloom, then pour to 105g and stop. Wait until the water level in the coffee bed drops to half before pouring again. Slowly pour until reaching 225g. Discard the tail section. Water-to-coffee ratio 1:15, extraction time 2:00.

Flavor

Sweet beans, clean. Pulped natural processing makes the acidity slightly bright but well-balanced with sweetness, and some batches even carry tropical fruit aromas, especially the overflowing aroma during brewing, which makes people love it all the more. Fresh sweetness of sugarcane juice, black tea, mellow fruit sweetness, an obvious nutty flavor, balanced and smooth acidity, a weak and clean bitterness, and a rich chocolate aroma with nutty flavor. Bright and refreshing, smooth and delicate in texture.

FrontStreet Coffee Recommendation

FrontStreet Coffee's Brazil Queen Estate coffee is a 100% Yellow Bourbon single origin grown in the Mogiana region, where the variety's clean fruit character and sugarcane sweetness stand out. Roasted medium, it pours into a rounded cup of cream, peanut, caramel, and hazelnut notes with almost no sharp acidity, making it approachable for drinkers who dislike sour coffee. It performs well as a pour-over, in a moka pot, or as an espresso SOE, and its friendly price makes it a dependable daily bean.