Red or Yellow? They both look brown to me!

Episode 35

Something a bit special this week.  Two coffees from the same farm, giving a chance to taste the difference between two varietals. 

Type 1

Coffee: Guatemala El Bosque Red Bourbon
Special Notes: Oops, what happened to the bag?
Cup Profile: Oops, what happened to the bag?

Type 2

Coffee: Guatemala El Bosque Yellow Bourbon
Special Notes: Oops, what happened to the bag?
Cup Profile: Oops, what happened to the bag?

This was my first ever attempt at comparing two coffees directly, and while it was a very interesting experience I found it posed some interesting challenges in terms of coming up with good descriptors.  The reason I started doing this blog was to challenge my taste buds, and to maximise my coffee drinking experience, so on that front job done.

What I don’t have at the end of this week is a good description of either coffee.  I found once I started comparing them that it was very difficult to think of one except in terms of the other.  However what I did find is that there is a significant difference in the coffees produced from these beans even though they have been grown on the same farm and processed using the same process.  I think this in itself is a bit of a breakthrough for me.  I will now be looking for red and yellow bourbons and looking to see whether the differences between these two coffees can be found across different farms and different countries.

Perhaps one day in the future I will find myself in a coffee shop asking “have you got any yellow bourbon” rather than “have you got any ethiopian” which has always seemed like a bit of a stab in the dark and is perhaps as inappropriate as asking for wine by asking for anything French.

Anyway, to get back to the coffee again, there is only one conclusion to be drawn, the yellow bourbon is in my opinion streaks ahead of the red.  It was cleaner, more balanced, smoother, had better mouth feel.  Basically in any way I could think of to compare, I preferred the yellow.  Of course the yellow is the one that is impossible to get, so obviously that is the one I prefer. 

It will be interesting to learn whether I think that yellow is “better” than red, or whether this is just a result produced by the specific circumstances on the farm.  I don’t know if I would be rushing out and planting masses of yellow bourbon just yet (even if my opinion is the norm, which it may of course not be),  and I have no idea whether this is even feasible in terms of how many years of crop would be lost to the change, but definitely something I would be tempted to do if I owned a farm, as I can’t help tinkering.  It’s probably lucky I don’t really.