How to Roast Brazilian Red Bourbon _ Pour-Over Red Bourbon Coffee Bean Tutorial _ How Much is a Cup of Red Bourbon Coffee

For more professional coffee knowledge exchange and coffee bean information, please follow Coffee Workshop (WeChat official account: cafe_style).

Introduction to Red Bourbon Coffee Bean Origin

South Minas, with its hilly terrain at elevations of 700-1200m, is Brazil's earliest coffee production area. Due to rising labor costs, mechanical harvesting is now predominantly used. This region is also where coffee was first commercialized, and we can see many large exporters established here. The Bahia producing region, located in northern Brazil, mainly produces washed Brazilian coffee. The coastal Espírito Santo region is Brazil's main export area for Robusta varieties.

Brazil's coffee growing areas are mainly divided into two types of terrain: the Brazilian plateau above 500 meters elevation and the Brazilian plains below 200 meters. The main cultivated and well-known varieties include Bourbon (including Yellow Bourbon, Red Bourbon, and Flat Bean Santos). The flavor profile of Brazilian coffee is characterized by low acidity, nutty flavors, balance, and moderate body. In the specialty coffee world, Brazilian coffee may not stand out, but it is often used as a blending component in espresso. Due to its high balance, it is frequently used by merchants as Blue Mountain-style beans.

The Bourbon Variety

Let me briefly explain what Bourbon coffee is. Bourbon coffee was initially cultivated on Réunion Island, which was called Bourbon Island before 1789. The Bourbon variety is a sub-variety that mutated from Typica, and along with Typica, belongs to the oldest existing coffee varieties. When green fruits mature, they turn bright red.

Generally, after Red Bourbon coffee trees flower and bear fruit, the color changes of coffee cherries follow this pattern: green > light yellow > light orange > mature red > darker red when fully ripe. Therefore, it's also called "Red Bourbon variety." In fact, Red Bourbon is what we generally refer to as Bourbon variety. Bourbon varieties grown at high altitudes typically have better aroma, brighter acidity, and may even have wine-like flavors when tasted.

To put it simply, the Bourbon variety is a coffee tree variety belonging to the Arabica species branch. It generally produces red fruits, called Red Bourbon. Besides this, there are also Yellow Bourbon and Orange Bourbon. Yellow Bourbon has relatively lower yields but better quality.

Spread of the Bourbon Variety

Due to the low yield and disease susceptibility of the Typica variety introduced to Brazil in 1727, the Bourbon variety was introduced to Brazil around 1860 via Campinas in the south and quickly spread northward to other regions in South and Central America. Today in Latin America, although most Bourbon has been replaced by its variants (especially Caturra, Catuai, and Mundo Novo), Bourbon is still cultivated in countries such as El Salvador, Guatemala, Costa Rica, and Peru.

In Africa, French missionaries known as Spiritans (from the Holy Spirit congregation) played an important role in spreading the Bourbon variety. In 1841, the first mission was established in Réunion, and a branch was established in Zanzibar in 1859. From Zanzibar, branches were established in 1862 in Bagamoyo (Tanzania coast, then called Tanganyika) and St. Augustine (Kikuyu, Kenya), and another branch was established in Bura (Taita Hills, Kenya) in 1893. Each branch establishment was accompanied by the planting of coffee seeds brought from Réunion.

In 1899, seedlings cultivated in Bura were taken to another French mission in Santa Cruz (near Nairobi). In 1900, they were introduced to the Kilimanjaro region of Tanzania, and seeds were distributed to local residents willing to grow coffee. This was the origin of what's called "Missionary Bourbon." Then the Kent variety was also introduced in 1920. Therefore, to this day, coffee in Tanzania is still mainly Bourbon and Kent.

— 1732: Round Bourbon to British territory of St. Helena Island

— 1860: Pointed Bourbon to New Caledonia, Yemen

— 1860: Round Bourbon to Brazil

— 1900: Round Bourbon to Rwanda, Kenya, Tanzania

— After 2000: Pointed Bourbon to Colombia

Processing Method Introduction

Semi-washed Method

After harvesting coffee cherries, unripe fruits and foreign objects are removed through water channels, then the outer skin and part of the pulp are removed, followed by using a mucilage remover to eliminate the mucilage. Removing mucilage helps reduce the required sun-drying time and lowers fermentation risks. This method is mostly used when climate conditions are not ideal. If air humidity is high, the climate is warm, or there's rainfall, there's a higher risk of mold during the drying process. Therefore, most washed beans used for commercial trade in Brazil are processed using the semi-washed method.

Analysis of Red Bourbon Coffee Bean Green Beans

Brazilian coffee comes in many varieties, with natural processing being the main method, classified according to producing state names and transport ports.

Due to scattered production areas and inconsistent quality, classification standards are not uniform:

Brazil's grading system evaluates defect percentage, size, flavor, and cupping scores, with its own independent grading system that is more complex than other countries. For example, "Brasil Santos, NY 2 SC17/18 SS FC" where NY2 is the defect percentage grade: larger numbers indicate higher defect percentages. The sequence is 2, 2/3, 3, 3/4..., with NY indicating the New York grading standard as the benchmark.

SC 17/18 indicates coffee bean size. SS FC (Strictly Soft and Fine Cup) indicates flavor and cup quality, divided into two groups: First group includes Strictly Soft, Soft, Softish, Hard, Hardish, Rioy/Rioysh, Rio; Second group includes Fine Cup and Good Cup. Brazilian coffee's main characteristics are high sweetness, cleanliness, smoothness, and low acidity, with quite broad applications and widespread popularity.

Brazilian Red Bourbon

Country: Brazil

Variety: Red Bourbon

Processing: Hand-picked, then semi-natural processing

Origin: South Minas

Elevation: 700-1200m

Processing Method: Semi-washed

Flavor: High sweetness, clean, smooth, low acidity, with tropical fruit aroma

Roasting Analysis

Brazilian coffee generally grows at elevations of 1000-1300 meters, so its density is relatively low, moisture content is moderate, bean texture is relatively soft, and the thickness from bean surface to core is thin. Therefore, it's not suitable for roasting at too high temperatures, which would result in burnt bitterness. We use a medium heat approach when dropping beans, maintaining heat through the dehydration stage, and making fine adjustments as temperature rises after first crack begins to promote more complete caramelization. This semi-washed bean heats up slowly after first crack, and can be dropped when approaching second crack.

Roaster: Yangjia 600g semi-direct flame

Preheat roaster to 200°C, open damper to 3. After 30 seconds, turn on heat, adjust to 160, damper unchanged. Return temperature at 1'30", maintain heat. Turn yellow at 5'00", grassy smell disappears, enter dehydration stage, reduce heat to 130, open damper to 4. At 168°C, reduce heat again to 100.

At 8'00, dehydration complete, bean surface shows wrinkles and black spots, toast smell turns to coffee aroma, prelude to first crack. Pay attention to first crack sounds. First crack begins at 8'50, damper fully open to 5. Development time after first crack: 3 minutes 10 seconds. At 190°C, heat reduces to 50, at 194°C reduces again to 30, drop at approximately 200°C.

This is a flavor-balanced coffee with typical Brazilian coffee style. Nutty and chocolate flavors are prominent, with low acidity.

Red Bourbon Coffee Bean Brewing Data

Recommended brewing method: Pour-over

Grind size: 4 (Japan Fuji R440)

Water temperature: 89°C

V60 dripper, 15g coffee, water temperature 90-91°C, grind 3.5, water-to-coffee ratio close to 1:15

30g water for bloom, bloom time 30s

分段：注水到120ml 断水，缓慢注水到225ml

即 30-120-75，萃取总时长2分钟

Other drip extraction recommendations:

French press: recommended grind size 3.5-4 / water temperature 90°C

AeroPress: recommended grind size 2.5, water temperature 90°C

Red Bourbon Coffee Bean Brand Recommendations

FrontStreet Coffee's roasted Brazilian Red Bourbon coffee beans have full guarantees in both brand and quality. More importantly, they offer extremely high value for money - a half-pound (227g) package costs only about 45 yuan. Calculated at 15g per single-origin coffee, one package can make 15 cups of coffee, with each cup costing only about 3 yuan. Compared to café prices that often reach dozens of yuan per cup, this represents excellent value.

FrontStreet Coffee: A roastery in Guangzhou with a small shop but diverse bean varieties, where you can find both famous and lesser-known beans, while also providing online shop services. https://shop104210103.taobao.com

Important Notice :

前街咖啡 FrontStreet Coffee has moved to new addredd:

FrontStreet Coffee Address: 315,Donghua East Road,GuangZhou

Tel:020 38364473