How Many Common Color Varieties of Bourbon Coffee Exist?

The Legacy of Bourbon Coffee Varieties

Within the Arabica species, Typica and Bourbon are genetically the most important coffee varieties in the world and also the oldest existing coffee cultivars. However, people tend to value the Bourbon variety more because it currently has numerous color variants.

The Origins and History of Bourbon

According to some records, the Bourbon variety originated from Yemen and is a natural mutation of Typica. In the early 17th century, French missionaries introduced it from Yemen to the Mascarene Islands, located 680 kilometers east of Madagascar. After the French occupied the island, they named it Île Bourbon (Bourbon Island, now Réunion Island), and simultaneously named this batch of Yemeni coffee as Bourbon coffee.

In the 18th century, Réunion Island became a nursery for the French to cultivate Yemeni Bourbon coffee. Until the mid-19th century, with the missionary journeys of the French Holy Spirit Church, Bourbon coffee began to be brought to Africa and South America for cultivation.

Spread and Evolution in the Americas

When introduced to South America, the first destination was Campinas in southern Brazil. At that time, Brazil mainly cultivated the Typica variety. However, compared to Typica, although Bourbon was equally susceptible to diseases and pests, it had higher yields, so it rapidly expanded to other regions in Brazil and gradually spread to other countries in South and Central America.

Later, with the development of the coffee industry, continuous transplantation, mutations, and hybridization gave birth to many coffee varieties. Therefore, in the Latin American region today, Bourbon has mostly been replaced by its variants (such as Caturra, Catuai, Mundo Novo, etc.), with only Brazil, El Salvador, Peru, and other countries still cultivating Bourbon.

Color Variations of Bourbon

Generally, after coffee trees flower and bear fruit, the fruit color changes from green to light yellow, gradually turns orange, and finally becomes red or dark red when mature. However, the Bourbon variety is quite special. After nearly a century of cultivation, Bourbon began to develop mutant varieties, including color mutations such as Yellow Bourbon, Orange Bourbon, and Pink Bourbon. The common Bourbon variety, to distinguish it, is also called Red Bourbon.

Yellow Bourbon

According to some records, Yellow Bourbon was first discovered in the 1930s at a Bourbon-cultivating farm in Pederneiras, São Paulo state, Brazil. Some people believe it is a natural mutation of Red Bourbon, while others suggest it is a natural propagation between Red Bourbon and "Amerelo de Botocatu" (a Typica variant with yellow fruit discovered in São Paulo state in 1871).

Later, the Campinas Agricultural Research Institute (IAC) in Brazil began researching this coffee and released several commercial varieties of Yellow Bourbon in the 1950s. Although Yellow Bourbon matures faster, with more pronounced sweetness and aroma than Red Bourbon and has distinct citrus acidity, its yield is lower than Red Bourbon, and its resistance to coffee diseases is poorer. Therefore, it is only cultivated in some areas of São Paulo state, Brazil. At FrontStreet Coffee, there is a Yellow Bourbon coffee bean from Fazenda Rainha in the Mogiana region of São Paulo state, Brazil. After brewing, it presents fruity sweetness, with nutty flavors like sugarcane, chocolate, and peanuts, along with a slight, clean bitterness and a smooth, delicate mouthfeel.

Orange Bourbon

Orange Bourbon was first discovered in El Salvador and is a natural mutation of the coffee fruit color gene. However, it is sometimes easily confused with Colombia's "Pink Bourbon."

Pink Bourbon

In recent years, a relatively new variety has frequently appeared in Colombian competitions - Pink Bourbon, named for its elegant and soft pink-colored coffee fruit. Initially, Pink Bourbon was a hybrid result of cross-breeding between Red Bourbon and Yellow Bourbon. Its pink appearance belongs to a recessive gene. Once it encounters dominant genes like red or yellow, it gets masked and doesn't show. Therefore, although this variety has strong disease resistance, it is very difficult to maintain stable output, with extremely low yields. It must be cultivated separately from other varieties to reduce the risk of being covered by other colors.

Although everyone considers Pink Bourbon to be a Bourbon variety, later genetic testing revealed that Pink Bourbon is not purely of Bourbon variety genes. Most of its genes are similar to Ethiopian native varieties, so the exact origin and true identity of this variety cannot yet be determined.

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