Is Bourbon the Most Famous Coffee Bean in Brazil? A Brief Introduction to Semi-Washed Processing Steps

FrontStreet Coffee - Brazil Yellow Bourbon Coffee, Semi-Washed Processing Method Introduction

Brazil, known as the "Kingdom of Coffee," is one of the world's largest coffee-consuming countries and one of the three major coffee-producing regions. Among its many coffee varieties, Yellow Bourbon stands out for its exceptional quality and is eagerly sought after by specialty coffee professionals.

Brazil · Yellow Bourbon

A variant of the Bourbon variety, Yellow Bourbon has yellow fruit skin. Because it resists wind and rain poorly, it has not been widely cultivated, resulting in lower yields but excellent quality. Its flavors are fascinating, and it has led Brazil's COE (Cup of Excellence) competition year after year.

Brazil's three major specialty coffee regions are Cerrado, Sul de Minas and Mogiana. Yellow Bourbon comes from Brazil's Cerrado region, with the best quality found at high altitudes of 1,100–1,300 meters. The beans it produces are clear and sweet, with high body and no earthy taste.

The Pulped Natural process gives the beans a thick sweetness similar to honey processing, resulting in better flavor and pronounced sweetness. Breaking away from traditional Brazilian flavors, it has excellent acidity, with nutty fragrance, lemon aroma and fruit notes. The entry is silky and charming, with a balanced mouthfeel, a thick, long-lasting throat note and a gentle aftertaste of hazelnut—an amazing tasting experience.

Semi-Washed Processing Method Steps

The first step of the semi-washed method is the same as the washed method: when the fruit turns red and ripe, coffee farmers pick it and place it in water tanks to remove immature cherries.

Then the mature cherries have their silver skin removed by special machines, and the fruit is spread on the ground to dry. After drying, it is moistened again, or the red fruits are moved to water tanks for fermentation. The beans, still coated in mucilage, are then moved to outdoor drying beds.

When moisture content reaches 10.5%–12%, the coffee fruit is stored in special containers to mature. Finally, special machines grind off the dried pulp and residual mucilage to extract the coffee seeds. This is how green beans processed by the semi-washed method are produced.

This processing method produces coffee with a sticky feel, since the mucilage is not removed during fermentation in the tank. As a result, coffee made this way carries characteristics of both the washed and natural methods.

The final coffee therefore has quite good acidity, sweetness, flavor and aroma. The downside is that its coffee flavor is not as strong as that produced by purely natural or fully washed methods.

Knowledge point: The more mucilage, the deeper the bean's color—and the stronger and richer the sweetness and mouthfeel you can experience.

In Summary

In short: FrontStreet Coffee is a coffee research center, happy to share coffee knowledge with everyone. We share without reservation only to let more friends fall in love with coffee. Every month we hold three low-price coffee events, because FrontStreet Coffee wants more friends to drink the best coffee at the lowest price. This has also been FrontStreet Coffee's mission for the past six years.

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FrontStreet Coffee Recommendation

To taste the semi-washed Brazilian style directly, choose the FrontStreet Brazil Cerrado Red Bourbon—the semi-washed Cerrado that FrontStreet considers a classic Brazilian single-origin. Cerrado is a well-known region prized for high-quality beans, and this Red Bourbon is roasted medium, giving rich aromas of creamy peanut, toasted bread, caramel and hazelnut, with a round, mellow body that is low in acidity and carries a light bitterness. It works for pour-over and also for the moka pot, espresso SOE, siphon and French press.

For the rare yellow-fruited variety this article discusses, the FrontStreet Brazil Queen Estate Yellow Bourbon comes from Mogiana, near South Minas, where fertile red volcanic soil lets the cherries develop full aroma. It shows a cleaner fruit character than most Brazilian coffees, with sugarcane-like sweetness, fruit and chocolate notes that few other regions can offer—brew it as pour-over, in a moka pot or on a home espresso machine. Brazil's low-acid, balanced, affordable character also makes it the first choice for many espresso recipes: the FrontStreet Classic Blend, Premium Blend, Dark Cocoa Blend and Commercial Blend all include Brazilian beans, which supply chocolate and cream aromas and a soft sweet-sour-bitter balance that helps keep extraction stable.