History of bourbon pointed coffee beans: once called the best coffee in the world

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Reunion is an inconspicuous black dot on the map, but an exclamation point to be reckoned with in the history of coffee! Now, in the 2018 World Coffee Brewing Competition, the Bourbon pointed body stands out.

The locally produced bourbon pointed coffee (scientific name "Laurina") is a variety of the finest Arabica coffee. Grows on a hillside with an elevation of 1499 feet above sea level. It has a long history of growing in Reunion. In the 18th and 19th centuries, bourbon pointed coffee was still very delicate, produced very low, scarce and expensive, so it was expensive. The French East India Company then developed coffee plantations in Reunion on a large scale. They transported a large number of slaves from the African continent as labor and turned most of the arable land into coffee plantations. Coffee production reached its peak.

At that time, the Bourbon pointed body was sought after by the royal family in continental Europe. Louis XV of the Bourbon dynasty declared it the best coffee in the world, and the princes and nobles flocked to it ever since. Not only that, but because of its economic dominance, Bourbon's pointed body plays an important role in Reunion. At that time, the pointed body of Bourbon, like Yang Guifei, was doted on by thousands of people, how brilliant and beautiful it was.

The geographical environment that brought a unique flavor to the Bourbon pointed body almost made it go through a disaster. Reunion's location makes it have to endure hurricanes. Several severe hurricanes and infectious diseases in the last century destroyed coffee cultivation. The area of the island is limited, and when sugar and rum sprang up, sugar cane cultivation replaced coffee cultivation. Bourbon pointed body once disappeared on the world coffee stage and became a history and legend recorded in books.

In 1999, Yoshihiro Kawashima, a Japanese coffee expert, came here, but returned with disappointment in recording the history of Laurina. Fortunately, the local botanists in Reunion did not give up. After hard work, they finally found this unique wild mother tree on the island. Bourbon coffee cultivation gradually developed on a small scale and ushered in its revival.

Compared with ordinary bourbon coffee, pointed coffee has smaller leaves, smaller and sharper fruit, and a tree shaped like a Christmas tree, so it gets its name. When ripe, the fruit has a rich Burgundy red color. After that, it is picked by hand and dried slowly. Bourbon pointed body is a light, clear coffee with a caffeine content of about 0.5%, while the usual Arabica caffeine content is 1.2% Murray 1.6%. Smell a mixture of lemon and flowers, taste slightly sweet, not bitter, no sugar or milk at all, in a sense it is more like tea. Because of the aroma of flowers and fruits, the taste is elegant, and the slow-roasting process retains its slightly sour taste and the shadow of various berries. The nature of the soil affects the taste of the coffee fruit. I have tasted Jamaica's Blue Mountain Coffee, Indonesia's Beaver Coffee and Hawaii's Kona Coffee before, and Bourbon Tip easily topped the list this time.

Perhaps it is this tortuous history that makes all those who taste it have mixed feelings in addition to the enjoyment on the tip of the tongue.

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