Bourbon Coffee Beans: The Color Experts of the Coffee World

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FrontStreet Coffee - Bourbon Coffee

Coffee varieties and coffee species are, in fact, two entirely different concepts. Types such as Sidamo and Mandheling are generally named after the places where uniquely flavored beans are grown, whereas coffee varieties refer to the biological concept of "species" — the varieties of the coffee tree itself.

Arabica accounts for 75% of the world's coffee production. Its cultivation conditions are demanding, it requires higher altitudes, and it offers broad, varied potential flavors. High-quality Arabica is typically sold as specialty coffee. Like Typica, Bourbon is native to Yemen, and its name comes from its initial planting location, Bourbon Island. Bourbon yields more than Typica, and it has high sweetness and bright acidity. Most Bourbon beans are red, though orange and yellow varieties have also emerged.

Bourbon is a variety of coffee tree and a branch of the Arabica species. It is named according to the color of the coffee fruit when ripe — red, yellow, orange, and pink Bourbon among them. Orange Bourbon has relatively low yields, while Pink Bourbon's production is extremely small.

The name Bourbon originates from Réunion Island. The French attempted three times to introduce coffee from Yemen to Bourbon Island, now Réunion, in 1708, 1715, and 1718; it was the coffee from the second and third transplants that survived and propagated.

In 1841 a French missionary established a church on the French island of Réunion. He later left Réunion for Zanzibar, Bagamoyo, St. Augustine, and other African countries to found new churches, planting coffee from Réunion Island at each location. From then on, "Bourbon coffee" was available on the African continent as well.

Red Bourbon

Red Bourbon is what we generally refer to as the Bourbon variety. Grown at high altitudes, it typically has a better aroma and bright acidity, sometimes even offering wine-like flavors reminiscent of red wine.

Yellow Bourbon

Yellow Bourbon is a Bourbon variety unique to São Paulo state, Brazil. When the coffee fruit ripens it does not turn red but instead takes on an orange-yellow color, hence the name "Yellow Bourbon." Grown at high altitude, it shows excellent flavor characteristics, and it dominated Brazil's Cup of Excellence competition for two consecutive years, sweeping almost all of the top three awards and creating a sensation in the specialty coffee world.

Pink Bourbon

Pink Bourbon is a hybrid of Red Bourbon and Yellow Bourbon. As the name suggests, its coffee cherries turn a romantic pink when ripe, making it an extremely rare variety. Because the color of the coffee fruit is determined by recessive genes in the pollen, the coloring of the trees is unstable: the yellow genes leaning toward Yellow Bourbon and the red genes leaning toward Red Bourbon interfere with each other, making the pink color difficult to maintain and sometimes producing Orange Bourbon harvests instead. It must be said, though, that Pink Bourbon has excellent disease resistance and a distinctive flavor of its own.

In Brief

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FrontStreet Coffee Recommendation

This article draws a careful line between coffees named after varieties, like Bourbon, and those named after places, like Mandheling — and if you want to taste the place-named side of that distinction, FrontStreet Coffee's PWN Golden Mandheling is the definitive example. Mandheling is the general name for Arabica from Sumatra, and Golden Mandheling is the top-grade version produced by the PWN company in Indonesia under unusually strict standards: beans are 18 mesh and above, no more than three defective beans are allowed per 300 g green-bean sample to meet the top G1 grade, and the lot then undergoes three rounds of hand sorting. All of that work shows in a cleaner cup and a stronger sweetness. The beans are large and uniform with a low defect rate, and after a medium-dark roast they carry a rich roasted aroma, a clean mouthfeel, and a full body — a natural fit for anyone who dislikes acidic coffee. For a wilder, more traditional expression of the same region, FrontStreet Coffee's Lintong Mandheling, from the Lake Toba area of North Sumatra, is wet-hulled and roasted medium-dark as well, with clove and woody aromas, low acidity, a spice-and-mint edge, and a strong, lasting sweetness.

Mandheling is at its best as a pour-over, where its caramel sweetness and chocolate and nut notes come through most clearly. Use 15 g of coffee at a 1:15 ratio, water at 87–88°C, and a coarse-sugar grind, then brew in three stages: bloom with 30 ml to wet all the grounds and let it degas, pour 100 ml to lift the bed and bring out the golden foam, and finish with a gentle 95 ml pour down the center to raise the sweetness. If you would rather have it with milk, FrontStreet Coffee's Classic Blend builds on a Brazil base with medium-dark Mandheling and a little Robusta, layering butter, roasted chestnut, and caramel over sandalwood, herbal, and spice notes, with enough crema to make latte art or a layered Dirty with ease.