Are Bourbon Coffee Beans Round? Characteristics of the Delicate and Precious Bourbon Coffee Beans

FrontStreet Coffee - Introduction to the Bourbon Coffee Variety

Bourbon Variety | Species

Bourbon descends from Typica. In 1708 it was planted by the French on St. Helena Island, also known as Bourbon Island, in East Africa, and spread from there. Legend has it that it became famous because Napoleon loved the flavor. It yields more and grows more vigorously than Typica, but its resistance to pests and disease is weak, and it is fairly sensitive to strong wind and heavy rain, so it needs the protection of shade trees. It is the second most important Arabica variety after Typica, suited to altitudes of 1,200-2,000 meters. Because its terminal buds and young leaves are green, it is called green-top coffee. By fruit color it is divided into Red Bourbon and Yellow Bourbon.

Bourbon's flavor is comparable to Typica, with low acidity and a smooth mouthfeel. Besides the Bourbon grown on Bourbon Island, Brazilian Yellow Bourbon and Salvadoran Yellow Bourbon are also well known. Its drawback is that it needs to skip a year before bearing fruit again.

The name has nothing to do with the famous American whiskey brand; it comes from the French Bourbon dynasty. The variety was first planted on Réunion Island, which was renamed Bourbon Island after the French royal family took it over. Bourbon has an important reputation in the world specialty coffee industry, producing coffee with high flavor recognition and a sweet taste. In fact, the widespread cultivation of Bourbon helps bring other flavor-affecting factors into clearer view.

Bourbon coffees from different regions around the world show a wide range of cupping quality. Over time the variety has been refined and has thrown off many genetic mutations, with Red Bourbon, Yellow Bourbon, and Orange Bourbon as the main mutants. Bourbon from Rwanda tastes noticeably different from Bourbon batches from El Salvador.

Bourbon coffee beans are oval in shape and relatively small.

In Brief

FrontStreet Coffee is a coffee research center that enjoys sharing coffee knowledge with everyone. Its unreserved sharing is meant to help more people fall in love with coffee. Every month it holds three low-discount coffee events, so more drinkers can enjoy the best coffee at the lowest price, a purpose it has kept for the past six years.

FrontStreet Coffee Recommendation

To taste the variety itself, FrontStreet Coffee's Cerrado Red Bourbon is a classic Brazilian single origin: Cerrado is a well-known region for high-quality beans, and this lot, a common South American Red Bourbon, roasted medium, shows rich cream peanut, toast, caramel, and hazelnut aromas with a rounded body, no acidity, and a lightly bitter finish, working as pour-over or in a moka pot, espresso SOE, siphon, or French press.

For the rare Yellow Bourbon, whose fruit is cleaner thanks to the mutation from Red Bourbon, FrontStreet Queen Estate comes from Mogiana near southern Minas, where fertile red volcanic soil builds full aroma. Brewed as pour-over, in a moka pot, or on a home espresso machine, it delivers a sugarcane sweetness found in few other regions, along with fruit and chocolate notes. And since Brazil's low-acid, balanced, affordable cup makes it a foundation of many espresso recipes, FrontStreet's Classic Blend (rich crema), Premium Blend (nutty), and Black Cocoa Blend (balanced) all include Brazilian beans, which add chocolate and cream aroma and a soft sweet-sour-bitterness that keeps extraction stable.