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

Introduction to Bourbon Coffee Varieties

When the conversation turns to coffee varieties, Bourbon immediately catches the eye with the colors of its fruit. Beyond the most common Red Bourbon, there are Yellow Bourbon, Orange Bourbon, and the even rarer Pink Bourbon.

Bourbon is a mutation that arose from Typica, and together the two represent the oldest coffee varieties still in existence. Both belong to the Arabica species. As Arabica spread, the ancestors of Typica traveled from Europe across the ocean to the Caribbean, while the East India Company carried Arabica from Yemen to Bourbon Island, now Reunion Island. The trees that grew along that route developed into a variety distinct from Typica, called Bourbon, which later spread to East African countries such as Kenya and Tanzania and eventually reached 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, so its genetic origin is defined as part of the Bourbon-Typica Group.

The story of Bourbon coffee begins with the French. The name is tied to a colonial island called Bourbon, 680 kilometers east of Madagascar in the western Indian Ocean off the African coast, which was controlled by France in the 17th century. This global journey of Yemeni Bourbon coffee, set in motion by French missionaries, is well documented in history. For that reason, the Bourbon coffee that carried the mission of religious pioneering became known as French Mission Bourbon.

The French settled on Bourbon Island in 1663. In the early 1700s they brought Bourbon from Yemen to the island, now called Reunion, for cultivation, naming that batch of Yemeni coffee "Bourbon coffee."

Historical records show that the French tried three times to bring this coffee from Yemen to Bourbon Island, in 1708, 1715, and 1718. Bourbon Island thus became an 18th-century nursery where the French cultivated Yemeni Bourbon. The coffee was not taken off the island until the mid-19th century, when it was carried to Africa and southern 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 Reunion in 1841. Along with their journeys, Bourbon coffee began to be brought to Africa and South America.

In the Americas: in 1860 the French introduced Bourbon coffee from Reunion to South America, first arriving near Campinas in southern Brazil. Because the Typica variety brought to Brazil in 1727 had low yield and was prone to disease, Bourbon was introduced to Brazil around 1860 through Campinas in the south and rapidly spread north to other parts 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 grown in countries such as El Salvador, Guatemala, Costa Rica, and Peru.

In Africa: around the same time coffee spread to Brazil, a French missionary played an important role in spreading the Bourbon variety across Africa.

In 1862 French missionaries established missions at Bagamoyo on the Tanzanian coast, then called Tanganyika, and at St. Augustine in Kenya, today's Kikuyu. In 1893 they established a mission at Bura in Kenya's 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 those missions the missionaries planted Bourbon seeds in their East African parishes, and from then on Bourbon coffee was present on the African continent as well.

So the Bourbon that French missionaries brought to the Americas and Africa took root and thrived under 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 nearly a century of taking root and reproducing, Bourbon began to develop mutant varieties in the Americas. The mutants FrontStreet Coffee describes are associated with beautiful colors: Red Bourbon, Yellow Bourbon, Orange Bourbon, and Pink Bourbon.

Red Bourbon: the cherry color moves 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 such as Yellow and Pink Bourbon, it is called Red Bourbon. Bourbon grown at high altitude typically has a better aroma and bright acidity, with flavors reminiscent of red wine.

As early as 1850, Brazil had become a major global coffee producer. The country relied heavily on the Typica variety introduced in 1720, but that bean had low yields. To protect profits, Brazil brought in Bourbon from Reunion, namely Red Bourbon, and planted it on a large scale.

Yellow Bourbon: first discovered in Brazil, it now grows mainly there and is a Bourbon variant unique to Sao Paulo state. The cherries do not turn red when ripe but take on an orange-yellow color, hence the name. Yellow Bourbon is a treasure of Brazilian coffee. It is a hybrid of Bourbon with other varieties. Because its yield is lower and it resists wind and rain poorly, it has not been widely planted, but in high-altitude areas it shows excellent flavor and has become more common recently. Yellow Bourbon has more pronounced sweetness and aroma than Red Bourbon, with distinct citrus acidity. FrontStreet Coffee carries a Brazilian Yellow Bourbon, Brazil Queen, which is sweet and clean by nature, well balanced between soft acidity and sweetness, with a tropical fruit aroma.

The first Yellow Bourbon appeared in 1930 near the city of Pederneiras in Sao Paulo, on a red Bourbon farm; many believe it was the result of natural reproduction between red Bourbon and yellow Botucatu. Besides its yellow berries, the plant closely resembles red Bourbon and has been proven to yield the same or even more. Yellow Bourbon matures faster but yields less than red Bourbon and resists leaf rust more weakly.

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

Pink Bourbon: the cherries are usually peachy-pink in color, sometimes also called "Pink Bourbon." It is an extremely rare new variety, cultivated by crossing Red Bourbon and Yellow Bourbon. Pink Bourbon is considered rare mainly because holding this beautiful pink color is very difficult; sometimes orange Bourbon is harvested instead, because the final cherry color is determined by recessive genes in the pollen grains. Among the pollen grains selected for hybridization are both yellow genes tending toward Yellow Bourbon and red genes tending toward Red Bourbon, all recessive and easily interfering with one another. Pink Bourbon can currently be found in Colombia and Guatemala.

Besides these main-colored Bourbons, there are also variants on the market such as Stripped Bourbon, translated as "Striped Bourbon." Like Maragogype, often called Elephant Bean coffee, it is a unique variety discovered in recent years in Colombia's Huila region. Although its fruit color is very close 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 mutated naturally from the ancient Bourbon, first discovered in Colombia by Australia's Project Origin team. Compared with coffee trees in the same region, Stripped Bourbon matures relatively late, has a weaker plant form, and sparser branches, so its yield is not high. It does, however, inherit Bourbon's characteristic citrus and sweet tones, and when lightly roasted it often shows berry and brown sugar aromas.

Flavor Profile of Bourbon Coffee

After all this, what does Bourbon coffee actually taste like? Bourbon has complex acidity and a wonderful balance. FrontStreet Coffee's brewed Bourbon shows prominent sweetness, a caramel quality, crisp acidity, and floral notes. Depending on where it grows, it presents quite different flavors: Salvadoran Bourbon, for example, may have more creamy and toffee notes; Orange Bourbon has brighter florals; Yellow Bourbon has more pronounced acidity and dried fruit flavors; and African Bourbon has a 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 on entry, with a light lemon aroma, rich nutty flavors, and distinct dark chocolate in the aftertaste, all with a rounded overall feel.

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

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

FrontStreet Coffee Recommendation

Bourbon's range of colors and flavors is exactly why it is worth tasting side by side, and FrontStreet Coffee keeps several Bourbon-based coffees on the shelf. The clearest starting point is FrontStreet Brazil Cerrado Red Bourbon, a red Bourbon from the well-known Cerrado region, processed semi-washed. Roasted medium, it shows a prominent sweetness on entry with a light lemon aroma, rich nutty flavors, and clear dark chocolate in the aftertaste, all with a rounded body.

To taste how the color mutation changes the cup, move to FrontStreet Brazil Queen Estate Yellow Bourbon. The estate sits in Mogiana, near South Minas, on fertile red volcanic soil. The coffee offers the fresh sweetness of sugarcane juice and black tea, a smooth fruit sweetness, obvious nutty flavors, balanced and gentle acidity, a weak, clean bitterness, and a rich chocolate and nut aroma, bright and refreshing with a smooth, delicate texture.

For a White Bourbon-family bean with a floral, fruitier accent, FrontStreet Colombia Sidra makes an interesting comparison. Sidra first came from Ecuador's Pichincha province, where locals called it Sydra; genetic comparison found it shares genes with Ethiopian landraces, and scholars suspect it arose from a cross between an Ethiopian experimental variety and local Bourbon. Roasted light-medium, it expresses florals, tropical fruit, grape, dried fruit, and passion fruit with a juicy mouthfeel, which is why so many drinkers have taken to it.