Farm: Luis Aguirre
Notes: Gummy Bear, Cranberry, Hibiscus
Processing: Washed
Elevation: 1,900 MASL
Varietal: Pink Bourbon
Region: Villahermosa, Tolima, Colombia
About
Fresh Colombian lots have arrived for the fall! We have two lots that we purchased. First up is Cran Beary, which tastes a bit like the bottom of a bag of gummy bears, and we mean that as the highest compliment. Tart cranberry up front, a chewy candied middle, hibiscus running underneath the whole thing keeping it bright without ever tipping into sour.
This coffee is a Pink Bourbon which is one of our favorites. If you've been drinking our Ethiopians for the sparkle but want something with a little more body holding it up, this is your coffee.
More About The Coffee
Luis Aguirre farms in Villahermosa, up in Tolima at 1,900 meters, and he got here by ignoring good advice. Most growers in his part of Tolima follow the guidance of the FNC, Colombia's national coffee federation, which for decades has meant planting high-yielding hybrids, farming intensively, and selling into the commodity market. Steady, predictable, and a ceiling on what your coffee can ever be worth.
Luis had been hearing what producers over in Huila were getting for Pink Bourbon - a varietal with a reputation for florals and wild fruit acidity, and a reputation for being a headache to farm - and he went looking for seed. That's a genuinely risky thing to do when your family's income depends on the harvest. It worked.
Through CDNT, a network that goes looking for the rebels - the producers in a region who don't fit the commodity mold - Luis got his coffee in front of sourcing partner Yesid Flores, and from there to La Real Expedición Botánica, who we buy through. What stood out about his lot was how clean it was. Not just fruit-forward, but articulate, every note sitting right where it should. He's become the example in his own community of what happens when you bet on quality over volume.
And the varietal itself has a great twist. Pink Bourbon isn't actually a Bourbon. Everyone assumed it was a Red and Yellow Bourbon cross because it turned up growing among Bourbon trees in Colombia, but DNA testing in 2017 and again in 2023 showed it's an Ethiopian landrace - which explains why it tastes so much wilder than anything else from Colombia.
Sourced through our friends at La Real Expedición Botánica.
