How Good Are Bourbon Coffee Beans? The Playful Chameleon of the Coffee World

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FrontStreet Coffee - Bourbon Variety Introduction

Bourbon coffee originates from a natural mutation of the Typica coffee variety and is also a historic variety. Both varieties belong to the Arabica species. Generally, Bourbon coffee beans transform from green fruits to mature bright red fruits, which is what we know as Red Bourbon. The fruits are relatively short and round, also called Round Bourbon, with high density in pulp and seeds, high sweetness, and bright acidity.

Besides Red Bourbon, there are actually Yellow Bourbon, the rare Orange Bourbon, and the precious Pink Bourbon.

Red Bourbon

Originally, after the Bourbon coffee tree flowers and bears fruit, the color changes from green to light yellow, gradually turning to a slight orange, and finally to mature (red) and even more mature (deep red). Therefore, to distinguish it from other Bourbon varieties (Pink Bourbon, Yellow Bourbon, etc.), it is specifically called Red Bourbon. FrontStreet Coffee suggests that Bourbon should be grown at altitudes above 1200 meters, where the flavor will significantly surpass Bourbon beans grown below 1000 meters.

Both Bourbon and Typica are listed as ancient, excellent varieties, but Bourbon has more vigorous vitality and better resistance to leaf rust than Typica, yet its flavor is completely comparable to Typica. The biggest common point between Bourbon and Typica is that they both require shade trees to block sunlight, which is beneficial for growth and flavor development. However, full sun cultivation can be adopted under the following conditions: annual average temperature between 18-24 degrees Celsius, plantation facing northeast or east, with only six hours of daily sunlight.

Yellow Bourbon (Bourbon Amarello)

Yellow Bourbon is a unique Bourbon variant from São Paulo, Brazil. It is named Yellow Bourbon mainly because the fruits remain orange-yellow when mature instead of turning red. When Yellow Bourbon is planted in high-altitude areas, it exhibits excellent flavor performance. It once swept the Brazil "Cup of Excellence" competition for two consecutive years, with almost all top three awards being won by Yellow Bourbon, creating a sensation in the specialty coffee industry.

The flavor of Yellow Bourbon typically features nuts and chocolate, with even and smooth acidity, weak and clean bitterness, and an overall bright and refreshing profile.

Pink Bourbon

After reading the introductions to Red Bourbon and Yellow Bourbon, one can deduce that Pink Bourbon is named because its mature fruits呈现 pink color. Pink Bourbon is cultivated from a cross between Red Bourbon and Yellow Bourbon and is a very rare variety. The main reason for such rarity is that the yellow gene of Yellow Bourbon and the red gene of Red Bourbon are both recessive genes, easily interfering with each other, making Pink Bourbon difficult to produce. Additionally, Pink Bourbon is extremely similar to immature red Bourbon, making it hard to identify and often mixed together, resulting in scarce production.

Pink Bourbon actually has very good disease resistance and a very special taste, with some lily floral notes and distinct lychee sweetness, which is truly amazing.

Knowledge Point

Bourbon has many variants, among which Laurina is nearly extinct and has only been reintroduced in recent years. It is a low-caffeine coffee bean of very high quality.

In Summary

FrontStreet Coffee is a coffee research workshop dedicated to sharing coffee knowledge with everyone. We share without reservation only to help more friends fall in love with coffee. Every month, we hold three coffee promotion events with significant discounts because FrontStreet Coffee wants to offer the best coffee at the lowest prices to more friends. This has been FrontStreet Coffee's mission for the past six years!

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