Category: Green Beans > South America

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Brazil Sul de Minas Yellow Bourbon

Sweet Maria's Coffee

Bourbon coffees are the traditional old-world varietal, and was once the exclusive coffee tree of Brazil. The small, rounded seed has a refined cup character, good bean density, and is grown in a way that requires more labor and produces less coffee than newer hybrids. Yellow Bourbon (the type that turns to a bright yellow color when ripe, rather than the Red Bourbon) is even more challenging to grow, because when rip the coffee is fragile. Slight winds can knock the fruit to the ground and ruin it. This is a lot I am really excited about because it comes via our knowledgable Brazil source from a cooperative that farms at an amazing 1400 meter altitude (well, amazing for Brazil). This makes it one of the highest grown Brazils we have ever offered. I cupped both the Red Bourbon and the Yellow, and chose to offer the Yellow as a lot to you all (although the Red was too good to pass up... we are using it in our signature espresso blend - I am sure you can figure that out!) But the Yellow does both light roast and darker roast, brewed and espresso; the Yellow Bourbon is very versatile. The cup is impressive, with more brightness than I expect from Brazils. It's sweet, like raw, unfiltered honey. (Actually it has a very distinct flavor for me: bee pollen, something you used to find in health food shops). The City roast has some canatloupe in the wet fragrance too, while darker roasts I intended for espresso still have some sweetness too, like dark mollasses. This dense, high-grown bean really holds up in the darker roasts, more so than other Brazils, but it's the light roasts that amaze me on the cupping table. It's so softly rustic, but refined too, with apricot and banana in the finish. It is delicate in an unusual way, delicate but tinted with mild earthy tones... white porcelain, but crafted earthenware, (Apologies in advance for far-flung analogies!) At Full city+ to light Vienna, as a single origin/single varietal esrpesso, this coffee is awesome: sweet, nutty, creamy, with a really fine acidic accent.

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For more information on this product, visit Sweet Maria's Coffee's website.