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Red Bourbon Coffee Beans

Generally, after coffee trees flower and set fruit, the cherries' color follows a fixed progression: green > turning slightly yellow > turning slightly orange > turning mature red > then deepening to darker red when fully ripe. This is why some people say "Red Bourbon variety." In fact, Red Bourbon is precisely what we usually mean by the Bourbon variety. Bourbons grown at high altitude typically show better aroma, brighter acidity, and sometimes even red-wine-like flavors in the cup.

Simply put, Bourbon is a variety within the Arabica species. It usually bears red fruit - hence Red Bourbon - but there are also Yellow Bourbon and Orange Bourbon. Yellow Bourbon yields less but offers better quality.

Coffee Variety: Yellow Bourbon

Yellow Bourbon Profile

The Bourbon variety originates from Réunion Island in the Indian Ocean. Standard Bourbon cherries turn bright red when ripe, while Yellow Bourbon - a hybrid of Bourbon with other varieties - bears yellow fruit at ripeness.

According to Teacher Han Huaizong's book "Specialty Coffee Studies," Yellow Bourbon is a natural hybrid of Red Bourbon and the yellow-skinned Botucatu variety (Amerelo de Botucatu × Bourbon vermelho), itself a variant of Typica. It adapts beautifully to Brazil's terroir and climate, yields more than typical Red Bourbon, and its sweet and sour flavors are superior too.

Last December, I had the privilege of visiting Baisheng Village in Guoxing Township and saw many Yellow Bourbon cherries already ripe in the plantation. On impulse, I picked some fruits to take home for planting (a bad habit). Back home, I peeled the fruit and left the mucilage to dry naturally in the sun. Once dried, I sowed the seeds directly in seed trays. According to the books, they should germinate in about a month, but I waited until March of the following year to see cotyledons - at one point I thought they had all failed.

For the past six months I have not managed them at all, and the root systems already show signs of becoming pot-bound. I plan to move them to the farm for further cultivation and choose a permanent location once they reach 40cm in height.

Red Bourbon Coffee Bean Recommendations

Brazilian Red Bourbon beans roasted by FrontStreet Coffee offer full guarantees in both brand and quality, and outstanding value for money: a half-pound (227g) package makes 15 cups of single-origin coffee at 15g each - a per-cup cost far below what cafés charge.

FrontStreet Coffee Recommendation

As the world's largest coffee producer, Brazil offers a vast range, and its beans' moderate acidity with balanced sweetness, bitterness, and body makes them ideal at medium roasts - nutty aromatics, mellow flavor, and just a whisper of acidity - whether brewed as a single origin or used in blends. If you want a first taste of Brazil, FrontStreet Coffee's pulped natural Cerrado Red Bourbon is a classic choice: at medium roast it shows creamy peanut, toast, caramel, and hazelnut aromatics with a rounded, non-acidic body and a light bitterness. It shines as pour-over and works equally well through a moka pot, siphon, French press, or as an espresso SOE.

If the Yellow Bourbon mentioned above piques your curiosity, the FrontStreet Coffee Fazenda Rainha from Mogiana, near Sul de Minas, grows on fertile red volcanic soil. As a natural mutation of Red Bourbon, it offers an even cleaner fruit character; brewed by pour-over, moka pot, or home espresso machine, it reveals a sugarcane sweetness plus fruit and chocolate notes found in no other origin.

Brazil's low acidity and balanced profile also underpin many espresso formulas: the crema-rich FrontStreet Coffee Classic Blend, the nut-forward Premium Blend, the balanced Black Cocoa Blend many baristas recommend, and the cafe-focused Commercial Blend all include Brazilian components - adding chocolate and cream aromatics, gentle sweet-sour-bitter balance, and extraction stability.