Striped Bourbon Coffee - Bourbon Flavor - Where Does Bourbon Come From

Introduction to Bourbon Coffee Varieties

When discussing coffee varieties—Bourbon immediately captures our attention with its fruit colors. Beyond the most common Red Bourbon, there are also Yellow Bourbon, Orange Bourbon, and the even rarer Pink Bourbon.

Bourbon is a sub-species that mutated from Typica, and together with Typica, they represent the oldest existing coffee varieties. Both Bourbon and Typica belong to the Arabica species branch. In the spread of Arabica, while Typica's ancestors traveled from Europe across the ocean to the Caribbean, the East India Company spread Arabica from Yemen to Bourbon Island (now Réunion Island). The coffee trees that grew along this传播路径 developed into a different variety from Typica, called Bourbon, which later spread to East African countries like Kenya and Tanzania, and eventually expanded to Central and South America.

How Bourbon Spread to East Africa and Central/South America

According to World Coffee Research, the Bourbon variety originates from Yemen and is a natural mutation of Typica. Therefore, the genetic origin of this coffee is defined as part of the Bourbon-Typica Group.

The story of Bourbon coffee begins with the French. The name "Bourbon coffee" is related to a colonial island called Bourbon, located 680 kilometers east of Madagascar in the western Indian Ocean off the coast of Africa, which was controlled by the French in the 17th century. This journey of Yemeni Bourbon coffee's global spread, initiated by French missionaries, is well-documented and recorded in history. Consequently, this Bourbon coffee, which shouldered the mission of religious pioneering, is known as: French Mission Bourbon.

The French settled on Bourbon Island in 1663. In the early 1700s, the French introduced Bourbon from Yemen to Bourbon Island (now called Réunion Island) for cultivation, naming this batch of Yemeni coffee "Bourbon coffee."

According to historical records, the French attempted three times to introduce this coffee from Yemen to Bourbon Island in 1708, 1715, and 1718. Thus, Bourbon Island became an 18th-century nursery for the French to cultivate Yemeni Bourbon coffee. Bourbon coffee was not taken away from the island until the mid-19th century, when it was brought to Africa and South Brazil for cultivation and began to spread widely.

In the mid-19th century, French Holy Spirit missionaries came to Africa and established a mission on the French island of Réunion in 1841. With the missionary journeys, Bourbon coffee began to be brought to Africa and South America for cultivation.

Introduction to the Americas: In 1860, the French introduced Bourbon coffee from Réunion Island to South America, first arriving near Campinas in southern Brazil. Due to the low yield and disease susceptibility of the Typica variety introduced to Brazil in 1727, Bourbon was introduced to Brazil around 1860 through Campinas in the south and rapidly expanded northward to other regions of South and Central America. Today in Latin America, although most Bourbon has been replaced by its variants (especially Caturra, Catuai, and Mundo Novo), it is still cultivated in countries such as El Salvador, Guatemala, Costa Rica, and Peru.

Introduction to Africa: Around the same time as coffee spread to Brazil, in Africa, a French missionary played an important role in spreading the Bourbon variety.

In 1862, French missionaries established missions in Bagamoyo on the Tanzanian coast (then called Tanganyika) and St. Augustine in Kenya (today's Kikuyu). In 1893, French missionaries established a mission in Bura, Kenya (Taita Hills). In this way, Bourbon coffee traveled from Bourbon Island to several African countries including Zanzibar, Bagamoyo, St. Augustine, and Bura to establish new churches. During these missionary missions, the missionaries planted Bourbon coffee seeds in their East African parishes, and从此 Bourbon coffee was also present on the African continent.

Thus, the Bourbon coffee brought by French missionaries to the Americas and Africa began to take root and thrive under the nurturing of various microclimates and soils, and began to reproduce offspring, becoming one of the mainstays of today's specialty coffee.

American Bourbon Mutations (A Colorful Variety)

In the 1860s, the first Bourbon coffee settled in Brazil. After taking root and reproducing for nearly a century, Bourbon coffee began to develop mutant varieties in the Americas. The mutant varieties that FrontStreet Coffee mentions are associated with beautiful colors: Red Bourbon, Yellow Bourbon, Orange Bourbon, and Pink Bourbon.

Red Bourbon: The color change of its coffee cherries goes from green to light yellow, to light orange, to mature red, and finally to darker red when fully ripe. To distinguish it from other Bourbon varieties (Yellow Bourbon, Pink Bourbon, etc.), it is called Red Bourbon. Bourbon grown at high altitudes typically has better aroma and bright acidity, with flavors similar to red wine when tasted.

As early as 1850, Brazil became a major global coffee producer. They heavily relied on the Typica variety introduced in 1720, but this bean had low yields. To ensure profits, they introduced Bourbon from Réunion, namely Red Bourbon, and planted it on a large scale.

Yellow Bourbon: Originally discovered in Brazil, it now mainly grows in Brazil and is a unique Bourbon variant exclusive to São Paulo state. The coffee cherries do not turn red when ripe but instead呈现橙黄色, hence the name Yellow Bourbon. Yellow Bourbon is a treasure of Brazilian coffee. The Yellow Bourbon variety is a hybrid of Bourbon with other varieties. Due to its lower yield and less resistance to wind and rain, it has not been widely cultivated. However, when grown in high-altitude areas, it exhibits excellent flavor characteristics and has become more common in recent years. Yellow Bourbon has more pronounced sweetness and aroma than Red Bourbon, with distinct citrus acidity. At FrontStreet Coffee, there is a Brazilian Yellow Bourbon coffee bean (Brazil Queen), which is inherently sweet and clean, with a good balance between soft acidity and sweetness, and tropical fruit aroma.

The first Yellow Bourbon appeared in 1930 near the city of Pederneiras (SP) on a red Bourbon farm—many believe this was the result of natural reproduction between red Bourbon and yellow Botucatu. Besides having yellow berries, this plant is very similar to red Bourbon and has been proven to have the same or even higher yield. Yellow Bourbon matures faster but has lower yield than red Bourbon and weaker resistance to leaf rust than red Bourbon.

Orange Bourbon is a natural mutation of the Bourbon coffee cherry color gene, first discovered in El Salvador.

Pink Bourbon: The cherries are usually peachy/pink in color, sometimes also called "Pink Bourbon." Pink Bourbon is an extremely rare new variety, cultivated by crossing Red Bourbon and Yellow Bourbon. The reason Pink Bourbon is considered a rare variety is mainly because maintaining this beautiful pink color is very difficult—sometimes some orange Bourbons are harvested because the final color of coffee cherries is determined by recessive genes in the pollen grains. Among the selected pollen grains for hybridization, there are both yellow genes tending toward Yellow Bourbon and red genes tending toward Red Bourbon, all of which are recessive genes and very easily interfere with each other. Currently, Pink Bourbon can be found in Colombia and Guatemala.

In addition to these main-colored Bourbons, there are also Bourbon variants on the market, such as Stripped Bourbon, translated as "条纹波旁" in Chinese. Like Maragogype (often called "Elephant Bean" coffee), it is a unique variety discovered in recent years in the Huila region of Colombia. Although the color of this variety after fruiting is very similar to ordinary Red Bourbon, careful observation reveals yellow stripes on it, which is why the discovering farm owner named it Stripped Bourbon.

According to FrontStreet Coffee's research, Stripped Bourbon is a variety that naturally mutated from the ancient Bourbon variety, first discovered by Australia's Project Origin team in Colombia. Compared to coffee trees growing in the same region, Stripped Bourbon has a relatively late maturity period, weaker tree shape, and sparser branches, thus its yield is not high. However, it inherits the characteristic citrus and sweet tones of Bourbon, especially when lightly roasted, often exhibiting berry and brown sugar aromas.

Flavor Profile of Bourbon Coffee

After all this discussion, what exactly does Bourbon coffee taste like? Bourbon coffee has complex acidity and wonderful balance. FrontStreet Coffee's brewed Bourbon features prominent sweetness, caramel quality, crisp acidity, and floral notes. However, depending on the growing location, it presents distinctly different flavors. For example, Salvadoran Bourbon coffee might have more creamy and toffee flavors. As for Orange Bourbon, it has brighter floral notes. Yellow Bourbon has more pronounced acidity and dried fruit flavors. African Bourbon coffee has more prominent fruitiness.

FrontStreet Coffee's Bourbon Flavor Brewing Comparison

Red Bourbon: Taking FrontStreet Coffee's Brazilian Cerrado as an example, it has obvious sweetness upon entry, accompanied by light lemon aroma, rich nutty flavors, and distinct dark chocolate notes in the aftertaste, with an overall rounded feeling.

Yellow Bourbon: Taking FrontStreet Coffee's Brazil Queen coffee beans as an example, they feature the fresh sweetness of sugarcane juice, black tea, smooth fruit sweetness, obvious nutty flavors, balanced and gentle acidity, weak and clean bitterness, rich chocolate aroma and nutty flavors, with a bright and refreshing taste and smooth, delicate texture.

Pink Bourbon: Fresh floral notes with distinct layers, obvious citrus and small tomato aromas, soft acidity even as the temperature drops, caramel sweetness in the finish, with a smooth and clean texture.

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