Bourbon Coffee Variety Introduction What are the Varieties of Bourbon Coffee Beans

When discussing coffee varieties, two of the earliest inevitably come up: Typica and the Bourbon variety FrontStreet Coffee is covering today. While other varieties are known for flavor, yield, and price, Bourbon is often remembered for its range of colors—Yellow Bourbon, Pink Bourbon, Orange Bourbon, and more. So what gives them their different appearances, and what flavors do the different colors carry? Let FrontStreet Coffee explain in detail.

The Origin of Bourbon Variety

In the 18th century, the French introduced round coffee beans from Yemen to Réunion Island, then still known as Bourbon Island—which is how the variety got its name. Bourbon then took root there and gradually adapted to the local growing environment. Although it arrived very early, it did not spread beyond the island until the mid-19th century. In 1860, Bourbon was introduced to Brazil and from there spread rapidly to countries across Central and South America, many of which still cultivate and produce Bourbon coffee today.

The Color Variations of Bourbon

Many people have heard of the color distinctions in Bourbon—Red Bourbon, Yellow Bourbon, Pink Bourbon. Red Bourbon is perhaps the most common, because under normal circumstances coffee cherries gradually mature from unripe green to light yellow, then to orange, with the optimal harvest when they turn red, and finally to overripe dark purple.

Trained harvesters know when to pick, selecting the day's best coffee by watching the color of the cherries. Unripe cherries mean the beans have not accumulated enough nutrients and cannot develop refined flavors, while overripe cherries tend to produce over-fermented flavors. FrontStreet Coffee's Yirgacheffe comes from the Red Cherry Project, which buys fully red-ripe cherries at higher prices to raise both farmers' income and bean quality—a win-win.

Back to the main point: Red Bourbon is named because its cherries turn red, and the same logic applies to Yellow Bourbon and Pink Bourbon. Yellow Bourbon is generally considered a hybrid of Red Bourbon and other varieties. Its cherries turn yellow when ripe, and it was first discovered in Brazil, which remains the main country cultivating it. Besides the yellow cherries, Yellow Bourbon has relatively low yields and little resistance to wind and rain, so it has not been widely planted.

Pink Bourbon is rarer still. It is a hybrid of Red Bourbon and Yellow Bourbon, and its rarity comes down to the pink color being determined by recessive genes that are easily disrupted, making the pink appearance hard to maintain.

How Does Bourbon Coffee Taste?

To taste Bourbon coffee, FrontStreet Coffee suggests starting with Brazil. Although Bourbon spread to many coffee-producing countries in Central and South America, its drawbacks sealed its fate of being replaced. Bourbon and Typica, the two oldest Arabica varieties, both have very low resistance to disease and pests, and their yields are not high; their one redeeming quality may be excellent cup quality. Many Central and South American countries therefore prefer to grow Caturra—a natural mutation of Bourbon—along with other more resistant, higher-yielding varieties.

Brazil Yellow Bourbon coffee comes from Queen Estate in the Mogiana region, processed using the natural method. We can taste distinct nutty notes, cream, and more. Besides Yellow Bourbon from Queen Estate, FrontStreet Coffee also carries a Red Bourbon from the South Minas region, processed using the pulped natural method; this coffee has nutty and chocolate notes with a caramel aftertaste. Comparing the two Brazilian Bourbons, it is easy to see that the base notes of the Bourbon variety are mainly nutty, with an obvious and very pleasing sweetness.

FrontStreet Coffee's Queen Estate Hand Brew Reference

FrontStreet Coffee wants to highlight Queen Estate's classic regional flavor, its rich chocolate aroma, so it uses a medium-dark roast. Through cupping, FrontStreet Coffee found this Queen Estate shows very obvious sweetness, so a three-stage pouring method is used in brewing to present more layers.

Dripper: Medium-dark roasted beans mainly present a rich, smooth taste. Targeting that, FrontStreet Coffee chooses the slower-flowing KONO dripper. The upper part of the KONO is a smooth curved surface, while the lower part has diversion ribs one-third of its length. This lets the filter paper fit more closely against the dripper and restricts upward airflow, so hot water can only flow downward, forming a siphon-like extraction effect that releases the aromatics in the grounds more fully.

Grind Size: As roast level increases, the bean texture becomes more porous, absorbing more water and releasing more soluble substances—including unpleasant woody, bitter notes. FrontStreet Coffee's barista therefore adjusts to a coarser grind, making the particles larger to reduce over-extraction. Here a medium grind is used (Chinese standard 20 mesh screen pass rate 70-75%).

Water Temperature: When brewing medium-light roasted coffee, FrontStreet Coffee uses higher water temperature to draw aromatics from the dense beans. Medium-dark roasted Brazilian coffee, however, has undergone longer caramelization, so the same high temperature easily produces strong, burnt bitterness. Lowering the water temperature a little helps reduce some bitterness. FrontStreet Coffee uses 87-88°C.

Coffee grounds absorb about twice their weight in water. FrontStreet Coffee generally uses 15g of grounds, extracted at a 1:15 coffee-to-water ratio, yielding close to 200ml of coffee liquid—1-2 servings.

• Dripper: KONO dripper
• Water Temperature: 87-88°C
• Coffee Amount: 15g
• Coffee-to-Water Ratio: 1:15
• Grind Size: Medium grind (Chinese standard 20 mesh screen pass rate 70-75%)

Use twice the weight of the grounds in water to wet the coffee bed, forming a dome, and bloom for 30s. Then use a small stream to pour from the inside out in circles until reaching 125g, then segment. Wait until the coffee bed drops to half the dripper's height, then continue with the same fine stream for the third stage to 225g. Once all the liquid has filtered through, remove the dripper. The time is about 2 minutes.

Hand-poured Brazil Queen Estate coffee smells of lemon, nuts, and peanuts. On entry it is very aromatic, with nutty, dark chocolate, and caramel flavors and obvious sweetness. The mouthfeel is as smooth as cream, overall very rounded.

FrontStreet Coffee Recommendation

Because Brazilian coffee carries a moderate acidity and an excellent balance of sweet, bitter, and full-bodied notes, it suits medium roasting particularly well, and FrontStreet Coffee's Brazilian range shows how the Bourbon family performs. If you just want a taste of the Brazil region, FrontStreet's pulped natural Cerrado is a very classic Brazilian single origin: Cerrado is a well-known local producing region prized for high-quality beans, and this lot is the Red Bourbon variety common in South America. At a medium roast it delivers rich cream, peanut, toasted bread, caramel, and hazelnut aromas with a rounded body, low acidity, and a slight bitter edge, and it works for pour-over as well as moka pot, espresso SOE, siphon, and French press.

The other FrontStreet Brazilian single origin, Queen Estate, comes from Mogiana near South Minas, where fertile red volcanic soil lets the cherries take in abundant nutrients and develop full aroma; part of the area keeps traditional farm management while another part adopts modern, standardized operations, which has greatly improved local quality. FrontStreet's Queen Estate is the rare Yellow Bourbon variety, a genetic mutation of Red Bourbon with an even cleaner fruit character, and whether brewed by pour-over, moka pot, or home espresso machine it shows the sugarcane sweetness found in no other region, alongside fruit and chocolate notes. Brazil also underpins FrontStreet's espresso blends, which are famous for their low-acid, balanced, affordable character: the crema-rich Classic Blend, the nut-forward Specialty Blend, the well-rounded Black Cocoa Blend, and FrontStreet Coffee's Commercial Blend built for cafe use all include Brazilian beans, whose chocolate and cream aromas and gentle sweet-tart-bitterness bring both flavor and stability to extraction.