Pink Bourbon Coffee Beans | Origin of Pink Bourbon and Pour-Over Taste Profile

Bourbon descends from the ancient Typica variety and features round-shaped beans. It was introduced to Brazil in 1927 and later spread across Central and South America. Its yield isn't especially high, but compared with the delicate Typica, Bourbon shows better resistance to leaf rust. Grown at high altitudes, Bourbon offers rich, delicate flavors, an aromatic fragrance, gentle acidity, and a smooth mouthfeel. The Bourbon cherries we usually see transition from green to light yellow, orange-yellow, red, and finally to fully ripe dark red—what we call Red Bourbon. But Brazil also has another Bourbon whose ripe cherries show an orange-yellow color: Yellow Bourbon, a variant unique to São Paulo state.

Yellow Bourbon: A Rare Brazilian Variety

Yellow Bourbon (Bourbon Amarello) is a yellow-skinned Bourbon variety native to São Paulo state, Brazil. Normally, coffee cherries turn red when ripe, but Yellow Bourbon doesn't—it shows an orange-yellow color instead, hence its name. In the cup, Yellow Bourbon is remarkably elegant, with prominent sweetness, aroma, and acidity. FrontStreet Coffee's Brazil Queen Estate coffee beans are selected from this rare Yellow Bourbon variety.

FrontStreet Coffee: Brazil Queen Estate Yellow Bourbon Coffee Beans

Region: Mogiana region
Estate: Fazenda Rainha (Queen Estate)
Altitude: 1,400-1,950m
Variety: Yellow Bourbon
Processing: Natural processing
Flavor notes: Nuts, chocolate, cream, peanut, sugarcane

FrontStreet Coffee has learned through research that the world's Arabica coffee varieties consist of Typica and Bourbon, along with their descendants. Bourbon is primarily popular in Central and South America and is one of Brazil's main varieties. Its name comes from Bourbon Island, now Réunion Island, off the east coast of Africa. In the 17th century, as a French territory, it was named Bourbon Island until the late 18th century, when it was renamed. In the 18th century, the French introduced round-shaped coffee beans from Yemen to Bourbon Island, where they took root and grew. It wasn't until 1860 that Brazil brought round Bourbon back for cultivation, after which it spread across Central and South America and became the most ancient Latin American coffee parent variety.

Bourbon cherries are small and round with high-density beans. Grown at high altitudes, Bourbon shows high sweetness and bright acidity. Like Typica, it is an ancient and superior variety. Bourbon resists leaf rust better than Typica, with flavors that are no less impressive. Common Bourbon cherries change color from flowering to fruit maturity, gradually shifting from green to light yellow, red, and finally fully ripe dark red—hence Red Bourbon. There are also Bourbon varieties that don't turn red when mature, instead turning the rarer yellow or pink—namely Yellow Bourbon and Pink Bourbon.

There is another theory regarding Pink Bourbon's genetics. Some studies have found that Pink Bourbon arises from natural hybridization between the Colombia and Caturra varieties. Caturra is a variant of Bourbon, while the Colombia variety—a coffee tree heavily promoted and cultivated in Colombia—shows obvious advantages from its partial Robusta genes: high yield and leaf rust resistance. Its drawback is mediocre flavor and a lack of delicate sweetness and acidity.

The Rarity of Pink Bourbon

Pink Bourbon is considered rare mainly because maintaining its beautiful pink color is extremely difficult. Farmers sometimes harvest orange Bourbon cherries instead, since a cherry's final color is determined by recessive genes in pollen grains. Among the pollen grains farmers select for hybridization are both yellow genes leaning toward Yellow Bourbon and red genes leaning toward Red Bourbon—all recessive, and all too easily interfering with one another.

Yellow Bourbon's "yellow" is likewise set by genetic selection of color genes. Yellow Bourbon grown at high altitude contains high amounts of fructose, presenting a sweet, juicy, refined flavor. For this reason, it has won multiple top honors in Brazil's Cup of Excellence (COE) competition.

Queen Estate's Processing Method

After harvesting ripe Yellow Bourbon cherries, Queen Estate uses natural processing, letting the cherries absorb more pulp sweetness as they dry. Brazil sits near the equator, and because the harvest season coincides with the dry season, the cherries are well suited to direct dehydration and sun drying. The traditional "sun-drying method," however, is fairly crude—cherries are dumped straight onto dirt ground, and the resulting coffee easily picks up earthy flavors, while uneven heating can produce the negative aromas of over-fermentation.

Queen Estate first pours the cherries into water tanks, removing insufficiently ripe fruit through flotation. The coffee is then processed in small batches on African raised beds with better airflow, turned regularly to avoid earthy flavors and over-fermentation. The result is a sweetness raised to a higher level than traditional natural processing.

Because Yellow Bourbon beans grown at high altitude have greater density and glucose content, FrontStreet Coffee's roasting approach aims to highlight Brazilian coffee's classic rich aroma while showcasing Bourbon's inherent sweetness.

Roasting and Brewing Recommendations

After repeated experiments and cupping comparisons, FrontStreet Coffee roasts its Brazil Queen Estate beans to a medium-dark level. Medium-dark roasting significantly changes the beans' internal structure, making them more porous. Ground into coffee powder, they absorb water more strongly. Without properly adjusted brewing parameters, the coffee easily becomes over-extracted and bitter. To achieve enough aroma without over-extraction, the extraction rate must be reduced. FrontStreet Coffee uses a slightly lower water temperature and a coarser grind to limit the release of bitter macromolecules, then relies on a KONO dripper to enhance body and a rounded mouthfeel.

Pour-over Parameters:

Water temperature: 87-88°C
Dripper: KONO
Grind: Medium (70% retention on China standard #20 sieve)
Coffee dose: 15g
Ratio: 1:15 (coffee to water)
Pouring method: Three-stage pour

Use twice the coffee dose in water to moisten the coffee bed, forming a dome for a 30-second bloom. Then, using a small stream, pour in circles from inside to outside until reaching 125g, then pause. Wait until the coffee bed drops to half the dripper's height, then continue with the same fine stream for the third stage until reaching 225g. Remove the dripper once all the coffee has filtered through, about 2 minutes in total. Finally, shake the server to mix evenly before enjoying.

The pour-over Brazil Queen Estate Yellow Bourbon presents aromas of dark chocolate, cream, peanut, and nuts. The entry is as refreshingly sweet as sugarcane, with a balanced mouthfeel and bright flavors, and the aftertaste lingers on the palate for a long time.

FrontStreet Coffee Recommendation

You can taste the Yellow Bourbon described here in FrontStreet Coffee's Brazil Queen Estate Yellow Bourbon, grown in Mogiana on fertile red volcanic soil that helps the cherries develop a full aroma. This rare variety delivers a clean sugarcane sweetness alongside fruit and chocolate notes, and it brews nicely as pour-over, moka pot, or home espresso—highlighting the classic rich aroma of Brazilian coffee while showcasing Bourbon's natural sweetness.

If you'd like to compare it with a classic red Bourbon, the FrontStreet Brazil Cerrado Red Bourbon is a semi-washed single origin from the well-known Cerrado region. Medium roasted, it brings out creamy peanut, toast, caramel, and hazelnut aromas—round and low in acidity with a faint bitterness—and suits pour-over, moka pot, espresso SOE, siphon, and French press.