What is Yellow Bourbon in the Arabica species? What is its relationship with Red Bourbon and Typica?

The Colorful World of Coffee: Yellow Bourbon

As we all know, coffee beans are the kernels of coffee fruits! After coffee fruits ripen, coffee farmers will harvest them and extract the coffee beans for post-processing. The most significant characteristic of most ripe coffee fruits is their bright red appearance! They have therefore earned a delicious alias - "coffee cherries".

That's right, "red" is the characteristic of most mature coffee fruits! However, the remaining few have completely different colors, and the protagonist of this article is one of those coffee fruits with different colors - "Yellow Bourbon"~

The History of Yellow Bourbon

Starting from the 18th century, Brazil had already begun its coffee cultivation industry, with Typica being the main coffee variety planted at that time. By the mid-19th century, leaf rust swept across the globe, and Brazil's coffee cultivation industry was naturally affected. Due to the genetic uniformity of Brazilian Typica at that time, almost all of it was wiped out after the leaf rust attack. Therefore, Brazil decided to introduce the round-bodied Bourbon from Bourbon Island, which had stronger disease resistance to reduce the damage caused by leaf rust. Since Brazil already had over a hundred years of coffee cultivation experience, the cultivation of Bourbon was smooth sailing, and it quickly spread throughout Brazil.

Then one day in 1930, people discovered a Bourbon plant bearing special fruits in a Bourbon plantation in Pedralva. Unlike other Bourbons that turn from green to red when ripe, it was adorned in bright yellow! Moreover, its maturation time was faster than conventional Bourbon varieties. With these two striking phenomena, it became the "standout" in the plantation at that time: when others were still green, it had already turned yellow! Unsurprisingly, with its eye-catching appearance, it was immediately discovered by people! It was named: Yellow Bourbon, with the scientific name "Bourbon Amarello" (all yellow variants of Arabica species are given the scientific name Amarello).

The Excellence of Yellow Bourbon

By 1942, Brazilian agricultural research officially began studying Yellow Bourbon. Research results showed that it was a natural hybrid variety of Bourbon and Yellow Botucatu. Yellow Botucatu is a mutant variety of Typica, also possessing a yellow appearance! Since there were no records of it when it was discovered in 1871, it was named Yellow Botucatu! Yellow Bourbon is not only special in color but also outstanding in flavor! In Brazil's Cup of Excellence competition, it "took home" the top three positions for two consecutive years. In the words of Professor Han Huaizong: "It instantly became the rising star in the specialty coffee industry!" Indeed, in the following years, Yellow Bourbon achieved excellent results in various competitions, once becoming synonymous with Brazilian specialty coffee.

Challenges and Distinction

(No prize guessing: which bean from FrontStreet Coffee's bean list is this~) But it should be known that the yield of Yellow Bourbon is much lower than conventional Bourbon varieties. Additionally, it is physically fragile, unable to withstand wind and rain, nor can it handle the heavy impact of leaf rust. Therefore, its cultivation difficulty is often much higher than conventional Bourbon varieties! This is also why today, its production in Brazil doesn't even reach 1%. By the way! Suddenly remembered something funny, due to the vigorous development of coffee in later periods, there are more and more different colored Bourbon varieties in the world. To distinguish the regular Bourbon dressed in red from them, the conventional Bourbon gained an additional alias: "Red Bourbon"!

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