Bourbon Coffee: The varietal behind half your favourite coffees

Bourbon is one of the most important varieties in the history of Arabica coffee. It takes its name from Île Bourbon, now Réunion, where coffee plants brought from Yemen were cultivated from the early 1700s. From there, Bourbon eventually spread to Brazil and across Latin America, becoming the starting point for a long list of varieties that are still grown today.

It is also a variety with a familiar trade-off. Bourbon can produce excellent coffee, particularly at higher elevations, but the plants are relatively low-yielding and susceptible to several major coffee diseases. That has made it less attractive for large-scale production, but it remains important in specialty coffee and in breeding programmes around the world.

From Réunion to Latin America

The story of Bourbon begins on the island of Bourbon, a French colony in the Indian Ocean now known as Réunion. French missionaries introduced coffee plants from Yemen to the island in the early 1700s, and the population that developed there became known as Bourbon. The variety takes its name from that early home.

Bourbon remained on the island for more than a century. From the middle of the 19th century, coffee plants began moving to other parts of the world as missionaries and colonial networks spread coffee cultivation through Africa and the Americas. Bourbon reached Brazil around 1860 and then spread north through South and Central America.

Once established in Latin America, Bourbon encountered other coffee populations and became part of an increasingly complicated family tree. Some varieties were natural mutations of Bourbon, while others were crosses involving Bourbon and other Arabica populations. Caturra, Pacas and Villa Sarchi are all examples of naturally occurring Bourbon mutations with a dwarf growth habit.

Modern Bourbon populations in East Africa have their own history. World Coffee Research notes that many Bourbon-like varieties are now found there, but they don't necessarily correspond exactly to the Bourbon variety traditionally grown in Latin America.

The Bourbon Family Tree

What does a Bourbon plant look like?

Bourbon is a tall coffee plant with relatively wide branching. The cherries tend to be rounder than those of Typica, and the beans are considered average in size for Arabica. Young leaves are generally green, although individual Bourbon populations can show some variation.

Unlike Caturra, Pacas and Villa Sarchi, which carry a mutation that gives them their compact growth habit, Bourbon is naturally tall. That means the plants require more room and can be more difficult to manage and harvest than dwarf or compact varieties.

Its yield potential is rated as medium by World Coffee Research. That is one reason Bourbon has gradually been replaced by more productive varieties in many commercial coffee-growing areas. In Latin America, varieties descended from Bourbon, including Caturra, Catuaí and Mundo Novo, now account for much of the production that was once based on traditional Bourbon itself.

Red, Yellow and Pink Bourbon

You'll often see Bourbon described by the colour of its ripe cherries. Red Bourbon is the traditional form most commonly associated with the name, while Yellow Bourbon is a well-established selection found particularly in Brazil and elsewhere in Latin America.

These colour differences are real, but they don't give us a simple set of rules for how the resulting coffees will taste. Flavour is influenced by much more than cherry colour, including genetics, altitude, climate, harvesting and processing.

Red Bourbon is the classic form of the variety, producing red cherries when ripe and widely cultivated across Latin America and East Africa.

Yellow Bourbon produces yellow cherries at maturity. It is particularly associated with Brazil and has been selected and cultivated there for generations.

Pink Bourbon is more complicated. It has traditionally been described in the coffee trade as a Bourbon-related variety, often as a cross or mutation involving Red and Yellow Bourbon. However, genetic testing of plants and coffee sold under the Pink Bourbon name has found tested samples to be much more closely related to Ethiopian landrace material than to Bourbon. That doesn't necessarily settle the identity of every coffee sold as Pink Bourbon, but it does mean that the name shouldn't be treated as proof of Bourbon ancestry.

Pink Bourbon has become particularly well known in Colombian specialty coffee, where high-altitude lots are often intensely floral and fruit-driven. Its popularity has grown faster than the scientific consensus around its ancestry, which makes it one of the more interesting examples of how variety names can develop in coffee.

What does Bourbon taste like?

There isn't one Bourbon flavour profile, but the variety has a strong reputation for quality. World Coffee Research rates Bourbon's quality potential at high altitude as very good, and describes it as a variety known for excellent cup quality at the highest elevations.

In the cup, Bourbon is often associated with sweetness, balance and a rounded structure. Depending on the coffee, that might mean caramel, chocolate, stone fruit, citrus or floral flavours. The growing environment and processing method can shift the result considerably, so it makes more sense to think of Bourbon as having a tendency towards quality and balance than as having a fixed flavour profile.

Origin makes a difference too. Traditional Bourbon from Central America can taste quite different from Bourbon grown in East Africa, where different Bourbon-related populations, environments and processing traditions come into play. Even two Bourbon coffees from the same country can be markedly different.

Why isn't Bourbon grown everywhere?

The biggest problem is agronomy. Bourbon is susceptible to coffee leaf rust, coffee berry disease and nematodes. World Coffee Research currently rates its resistance to all three as low or susceptible.

That matters because a producer isn't choosing a variety based on flavour alone. Yield, disease pressure, climate, labour, altitude and the cost of managing the farm all have to make sense together.

Bourbon's medium yield and susceptibility to disease have therefore encouraged farmers and breeders to look for alternatives. Some of the most successful alternatives have kept useful Bourbon characteristics while adding traits such as compact growth, higher productivity or disease resistance.

That's also why Bourbon is still found on farms where producers are prepared to manage those risks. At the right altitude and under the right conditions, the quality potential can make a lower-yielding variety worth growing.

Bourbon's genetic legacy

This is where Bourbon's influence really becomes clear. It sits behind a large part of the Arabica family tree cultivated across Latin America and Africa.

Caturra is a natural mutation of Bourbon discovered in Brazil between 1915 and 1918. A single-gene mutation gave it a compact growth habit, allowing plants to be grown more closely together and managed at a smaller size.

Pacas is another natural Bourbon mutation, discovered in El Salvador in 1949. Like Caturra, it carries the dwarfing mutation that gives it a compact structure.

Villa Sarchi appeared in Costa Rica in the 1950s or 1960s and is also a natural mutation of Bourbon. Its compact growth and ability to perform at high elevations made it useful in Costa Rican coffee and, later, in breeding programmes.

Mundo Novo has a different story. It is the result of a natural cross between Bourbon and Typica discovered in Brazil in 1943. Selections from that population became commercially important, and a later cross between Mundo Novo and Caturra produced Catuaí.

SL28, one of Kenya's best-known varieties, is also Bourbon-related. It was selected in the 1930s from a population known as Tanganyika Drought Resistant and belongs to the Bourbon group.

There are many more examples. Once you start looking at the genealogy of Arabica, Bourbon turns up again and again.

Why Bourbon still matters

Bourbon has been grown for centuries, but its importance isn't just historical. It remains one of the foundational varieties of modern Arabica, with very good quality potential at high altitude and a genetic contribution that can be traced through countless other varieties.

At the same time, Bourbon shows why coffee varieties are always a compromise. The characteristics that make a variety desirable in the cup don't necessarily make it the easiest or most profitable plant to grow.

That balance between quality, yield and resilience explains much of coffee breeding over the last century. Bourbon is part of that story from the beginning, and plenty of the varieties developed since still carry something of its genetic legacy.

Quick Varietal Facts

Varietal: Bourbon
Species: Coffea arabica
Type: Traditional Arabica variety / Bourbon lineage
Origin: Île Bourbon (now Réunion), early 1700s
Genetic background: Bourbon group
Growth habit: Tall with relatively wide branching
Cherry colour: Traditionally red; yellow and other colour forms are also found
Yield potential: Medium
Optimal altitude: Depends on latitude; quality potential is particularly strong at high altitude
Disease resistance: Susceptible to coffee leaf rust, coffee berry disease and nematodes
Quality potential: Very good at high altitude
Notable descendants and related varieties: Caturra, Pacas, Villa Sarchi, Mundo Novo, SL28 and many others
Typical cup characteristics: Often sweet, balanced and rounded, with flavour varying significantly according to origin, environment and processing

Further Reading

World Coffee Research – Bourbon Variety Profile
A detailed reference covering Bourbon's history, growth habit, yield potential, altitude, disease susceptibility and quality potential.

World Coffee Research – History of Arabica
Useful background on the spread of Bourbon and Typica and their influence on cultivated Arabica coffee.

Café Imports – Pink Bourbon? Cryptozoology and Genetics in Specialty Coffee
An interesting look at the ongoing debate around Pink Bourbon's identity and the genetic testing that has challenged its traditional classification.

Interested in exploring Bourbon's genetic relatives? Check out our articles on Typica, Caturra, and SL28.