What are the flavor characteristics of Colombia's Pink Bourbon? Could Pink Bourbon actually not be Bourbon?

Bourbon: The Noble Variety

Bourbon, like Typica, belongs to the elder generation of the Arabica family. Many "new generation" varieties are Bourbon mutations — SL28, Caturra, and others. Beyond these, Bourbon itself comes in several colorful versions, such as Yellow Bourbon and Orange Bourbon. To distinguish the original from its mutants, people borrowed Bourbon's original red color and gave it the nickname "Red Bourbon."

Pink Bourbon: The Eye-Catching Variety

In recent Colombian coffee competitions, one eye-catching Bourbon line has consistently ranked near the top. Its name alone draws the attention of countless coffee enthusiasts. Meet today's protagonist: Pink Bourbon.

What is Pink Bourbon?

As the name suggests, Pink Bourbon is a Bourbon with a pink appearance. Of course, it is not the beans that are pink, but the coffee cherries surrounding them. Pink Bourbon's cherries carry an elegant, soft pink hue — and that color is remarkably difficult to maintain.

The original Pink Bourbon was created by cross-breeding Red Bourbon with Yellow Bourbon. The color is so hard to hold onto because pink is governed by a recessive gene: the moment it meets dominant red or yellow genes, it gets masked and never shows. Farmers who want to harvest pink cherries therefore have to plant it in isolation from other varieties to reduce the risk of the color being bred out.

Origins and Development

Today Pink Bourbon is grown mainly across Central and South America, with Colombia cultivating the most of it. FrontStreet Coffee's research points to Han Huaizong's book "The Fourth Wave: Specialty Coffee Studies," which traces Pink Bourbon's cultivation in Colombia back to the 1950s–1980s. During that era, the Colombian Coffee Growers Federation (FNC) established an experimental farm called Cenicafe in San Adolfo, Huila. It planted hundreds of varieties from around the world and continuously cross-bred new ones — that was the farm's entire experimental purpose.

By the 1980s, leaf rust was ravaging Colombian coffee, and the losses to individual estates were immeasurable. The owner of Hacienda La Esmeralda bought a batch of rust-resistant varieties from the experimental farm for trial planting — and that batch was Pink Bourbon. At first, though, it drew little attention; it was simply mixed in with other resistant varieties like Caturra and Castillo. It was not until 2002, when Rodrigo, the estate's owner and a devoted fan of unusual varieties, learned cupping in a local coffee training course, that he began cupping every unique variety on the estate one by one. Through cupping he discovered that Pink Bourbon had a distinctive flavor reminiscent of Geisha — citrus notes and elegant florals — and started studying the variety in earnest.

Rise to Fame

In 2014, he separated Pink Bourbon into its own plots and distributed the rare seeds to other estates for joint cultivation. That act of generosity is what made Pink Bourbon famous. From 2019 to 2023, it achieved excellent results across various competitions, and in 2023 at the World Barista Championship, Boram Um won the title using Pink Bourbon.

The Genetic Mystery

Named Bourbon — but not necessarily Bourbon. Surprising, isn't it? The Pink Bourbon we originally knew was indeed a Red Bourbon x Yellow Bourbon hybrid, which is correct. But in recent years, genetic testing has revealed that most competition Pink Bourbons are not pure Bourbon at all.

Among the 19 Pink Bourbon test results listed in "Specialty Coffee Studies," 7 carried no Bourbon genetics whatsoever. Instead, they showed stronger Typica, Geisha, and Ethiopian landrace heritage. The remainder were either Bourbon or Bourbon hybrids. There is another clue, too: the top leaves of Bourbon plants are mostly green, while Pink Bourbon's new leaves tend toward light brown — a detail that indirectly supports the suspicion that it is not purely Bourbon. If that is the case, should the Typica-dominant ones be renamed "Pink Typica," and the Geisha-dominant ones "Pink Geisha"?

Whether a rename will happen is anyone's guess, but FrontStreet Coffee suspects that if a "pink series" Geisha ever officially appeared, its price would probably double. And even though genetic testing now tells us some Pink Bourbons are not Bourbon, we still cannot uncover where they truly came from. As the book suggests, perhaps only the experimental farm behind the project knows the real story of Pink Bourbon.

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FrontStreet Coffee Recommendation

Colombian coffee covers an impressively wide spectrum, and FrontStreet Coffee's washed Huila beans showcase the classic side of it. Huila, in the southern reaches of Colombia's central mountain range, sits on hillside terrain above 1,500 meters where the country's most important rivers converge, supplying abundant water. Roasted medium-dark, these beans highlight dark chocolate, the sweet fragrance of nuts, moderate body, and a mellow mouthfeel — at home in a pour-over, French press, moka pot, or espresso machine, and equally good as an Americano or latte.

For a taste of Colombia's experimental new wave, the FrontStreet Colombia Sidra from Finca La Linea is anaerobic natural processed: fermented in a sealed, low-oxygen stainless tank with controlled temperature, time, and pH, it develops intense tropical fruit aromatics. Brewed at a medium-light roast, it pours out passion fruit, grape, apricot, and dried-fruit sweetness with a juicy texture.