Colombia La Reserva Pink Bourbon

We have a particular fondness for the Pink Bourbon variety, and in this micro-lot it really shows its best side - flavorful, super clean, elegant and incredibly tasty.

Last December, we visited the La Reserva farm, where the coffee is grown. When we saw the Pink Bourbon trees on the highest point of the farm, we immediately decided to buy the coffee, without even tasting it. We had a hunch that it would be something special - and our hunch turned out to be absolutely right; growing Pink Bourbon at an altitude of almost 2,000 meters results in a slow ripening of the cherries, which in turn develops greater complexity, deeper sweetness and a livelier fruit acidity.

The coffee has an aromatic style where caramel sweetness is balanced with fresh notes of lemongrass and slightly unripe peach, rounded off by a long aftertaste with hints of milk chocolate. The coffee is particularly pure and beautifully reflects the exceptional farm where it has been grown.

More than half of the farm's land is set aside as a protected nature reserve and provides habitat for a variety of species - including the endangered Andean bear, better known as the spectacled bear.

BACKGROUND TO THIS MICRO-LOT

The coffee is harvested at optimum ripeness and then transported to a processing station, where fully ripe cherries are separated from defective and unripe ones. The cherries are then de-husked and separated from the skin, pulp and mucilage and undergo an anaerobic fermentation in 200-liter plastic containers for 78 hours. Finally, the coffee is washed and dried for about 5-6 days.

ABOUT PINK BOURBON

Pink Bourbon was previously thought to be a hybrid of Yellow and Red Bourbon varieties. The variety was first identified growing in and around Huila, Colombia. Recent research has found that Pink Bourbon is in fact not Bourbon at all. Pink Bourbon mostly likely comes from an Ethiopian landrace variety. Pink Bourbon has a stunningly high cup potential and it wows coffee professionals and consumers alike; there is just so much to love about this variety. Its impressively high cup quality makes even more sense now that we understand Pink Bourbon is not simply a hybrid of two Bourbon varieties but traces to Ethiopian landraces. Its siblings include the highly-prized Geisha, which has consistently produced incredibly high cup scores. Pink Bourbon will continue to be a highly distinguished and valued variety.

Some farmers also report that Pink Bourbon has more disease resistance than the Bourbons it grows alongside. Based on these new discoveries, this may be due to the genetic variety it has coming from Ethiopian landraces.