An Introduction to Bourbon Coffee Variety: Characteristics of Bourbon Coffee Beans with Low Caffeine Content but Delicate Nature

FrontStreet Coffee - Introduction to Bourbon Coffee

Let's start with Bourbon Coffee. Bourbon Coffee is one of the two main branches of Arabica coffee, with the other being Typica. Bourbon Coffee originated from a small island called Réunion, located near Madagascar in the ocean waters, as shown in the figure below:

In 1513, the Portuguese navigator Mascarenhas first discovered this archipelago and named it the Mascarene Islands, with Réunion being one of these islands. By 1642, France formally announced the occupation of the island, during the reign of France's Louis XIV - the famous Bourbon Dynasty. To commemorate Louis XIV's achievements, it was officially named Bourbon Island in 1649.

This island held a very important geographical position and served as a transit station for France's Indian Ocean traffic. At that time, the Yemeni government gave coffee beans as a gift to Louis XIV, and later the French successfully transported coffee beans from Yemeni ports to Bourbon Island and cultivated them there. From then on, Bourbon coffee flourished and later developed in two directions - one route around the Cape of Good Hope into Brazil, and another eastward to Kenya, Tanzania, and other parts of East Africa.

The Bourbon variety originates from Ethiopia and is a natural mutation of Bourbon, originally appearing on Réunion Island. It was first recorded in 1947. Burundi, Rwanda, and South American regions are the main coffee growing areas for Bourbon. Although this variety is similar to Typica, Bourbon is stronger than Typica, with higher yields, lower caffeine content, shorter plants, very low disease resistance, and is more susceptible to leaf rust disease.

The Bourbon variety is a subspecies that mutated from Typica and belongs to the same existing ancient coffee varieties as Typica. When green fruits mature, they turn bright red.

Red Bourbon: After general coffee trees flower and bear fruit, the color change of coffee fruits follows this pattern: green > light yellow > light orange > mature red > darker red when fully ripe. Therefore, some people call it "Red Bourbon variety." In fact, Red Bourbon is what we generally refer to as Bourbon variety. Bourbon grown at high altitudes typically has better aroma, brighter acidity, and may even have flavors similar to red wine when tasted.

To put it simply, Bourbon is a coffee tree variety belonging to a branch of the Arabica species. It generally bears red fruits, called Red Bourbon. In addition, there are also Yellow Bourbon and Orange Bourbon. Yellow Bourbon has relatively lower yields but better quality.

In Summary

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