What is Arabica Pacamara? Yellow Pacamara is Round and Yellow Pacamara Beans

FrontStreet Coffee - Bourbon Coffee Variety Introduction

The Origin and Spread of Bourbon Coffee

The name Bourbon comes from the island where the variety was first cultivated. In 1715, France transferred round-bean coffee from Mocha, Yemen, to Bourbon Island off the east coast of Africa (renamed Réunion Island after the French Revolution), hence the name Bourbon. Then in 1717, the French brought another batch of round-bean Bourbon seedlings from Yemen — the true predecessor of Bourbon coffee.

In 1732, the British East India Company carried Bourbon seedlings from Yemen to Saint Helena Island for cultivation. Between 1860 and 1870, Brazil in the Americas first introduced the Bourbon variety, which gradually replaced Typica there. From Brazil, Bourbon spread rapidly northward across South and Central America.

After 1900, French missionaries carried Bourbon from Réunion to Kenya, Tanzania, Rwanda, and beyond. Today, Bourbon is a major force in high-quality coffee worldwide.

Characteristics of Bourbon Coffee Trees

Slightly different from Typica, which has red-tipped young leaves, Bourbon has green tips and broad leaves with wavy edges, and it yields about 30% more than Typica. The beans are rounder and shorter, with rich berry acidity, distinct creamy fragrance, a strong acidic aroma, and pronounced fruit acidity. Like Typica, however, it suffers from poor disease resistance.

Bourbon Coffee Varieties

Compared with Typica, Bourbon has given rise to far more variants — Caturra, Pacas, and Laurina among them — and all are outstanding in their own right.

Yellow Bourbon is a unique Bourbon variety found in São Paulo state, Brazil. Its cherries do not turn red when ripe but instead take on an orange-yellow color, hence the name. Yellow Bourbon grown at high altitude shows exceptional flavor, and it has dominated Brazil's Cup of Excellence competition for two consecutive years, nearly sweeping the top three places — making it a genuine celebrity in the specialty coffee world!

FrontStreet Coffee Recommendation

Curious what Yellow Bourbon actually tastes like? FrontStreet Coffee's Brazil Queen Estate coffee is grown in Mogiana, near southern Minas, where fertile red volcanic soil helps the cherries develop a full, rounded aroma. The estate's variety is the rare Yellow Bourbon — a golden-fruited mutation of red Bourbon with a cleaner fruit character than its red cousin.

Brewed by pour-over, moka pot, or home espresso machine, Queen Estate offers aromas of cream, peanut, toasted bread, and sugarcane — rich, mellow, and clean in sweetness, with a smooth, astringency-free body that stretches into a long, gentle finish. It is a wonderful everyday coffee and the easiest way to taste what makes this mutated Bourbon so celebrated.