The Pink Bourbon variety has become a delicious staple of Colombian specialty coffee in the last 10 years. It is a variety originally, according to local knowledge, that stemmed out of a farm in the township of San Adolfo in the area Acevedo. This variety found a perfect breeding space in Huila where producers have found it to adapt well to the conditions of the area and have a delicious cup quality regardless of processing choices made. This is a special circumstance -- often producers are striking a balance between productivity and disease resistance on one hand and cup quality on the other, with these sometimes pulling in opposite directions. Pink Bourbon is special because it truly the best of both worlds -- it's low-risk to grow and it tastes amazing!
The flavor profile of this variety has a very consistent quality and intense sweetness. It resembles "melao" which refers to the melted panela used in Colombia to sweeten certain desserts.
This lot comes from 3 female-led smallholder producer families in Southern Huila -- Carmen Elisa Sanjuan / Efren Albeiro Erazo Jiminez and Martha Ligia Reina Benavides from Pitalito, as well as Yamile Muñoz Bravo from San Agustin.
Here are each of their stories in coffee:
YAMILE MUÑOZ:
Elevation: 1810 MASL
Location:
San Agustin, Huila, Colombia
Processing: Excelso EP Screen 15+, SCA Specialty Grade.
Fully washed with 24-hour dry fermentation
Drying Method: Parabolic covered patios
Shade trees: Guamo, avocado, nispero, orange and cerindo trees.
Harvest: October - December 2024
Farm Varieties: Caturra, Castillo, Pink Bourbon, Tabi
Total Farm Area:
9 Hectares, 8.3 Hectares planted in coffee
In the south of Huila in Colombia, up in the mountains, with a view to the Magdalena River we find the picturesque municipality of San Agustin. A place with an immense cultural heritage due to its indigenous background where you’ll find the Archeological Park covering 116 Hectares and declared World Heritage site by UNESCO in 1995.
In its rural area, driving through an unpaved road, we meet Yamile Muñoz at her farm Las Juntas. The farm was originally from her grandfather, who started selling, parcel by parcel, to her father until he purchased it all. Yamile grew up in the farm but later in life, looking for better options, left to work in Bogotá, the capital of Colombia, but after a while, she missed her home and the countryside, and so decided to go back to her roots.
Also, she already had a baby, which she preferred to raise alongside her mother and near to her roots rather than in the big city. This happened almost seven years ago, and it became the pivotal moment when she decided to start with coffee at her family farm alongside her mom. At first their production was all for commercial grade but after seeing the possibilities of specialty coee, she and her mother took the decision to switch to specialty two years and a half ago. It has been a challenge because of the hard labor and attention to detail but it has been rewarding bringing a better income and quality of life for them. They have invested in varieties as well as improving infrastructure. Yamile is proud of the new drying station they built which allows them to process more coffee, with the next improvement being a storage space. She has learned and improved the quality thanks to the advice given by the PECA technician (Caravela's agronomist). Yamile would like to tell you “I want to invite you to come to visit our farm and San Agustin. Also, to tell you that this coffee first passes through women hands, and we always strive to do the best work possible for the coffee to be amazing so that you can taste it. We are always thinking of improving, investing in the farm, and making our coffee and San Agustin recognized worldwide.”
Carmen Elisa Sanjuan & Efren Albeiro Erazo:
Elevation: 1750 MASL
Location:
Pitalito, Huila, Colombia
Processing: Excelso EP Screen 15+, SCA Specialty Grade.
Fully washed with 24-hour dry fermentation
Drying Method: Parabolic covered patios
Harvest: October - December 2024
Farm Varieties: Bourbon Aji (spicy Bourbon), Caturra, Colombia, Geisha, Pink Bourbon
In Latin America, coffee is typically produced by families, especially when they are small-scale farms. The newer generations, the sons and daughters of coffee growers, usually grow up on their family farms, always surrounded and related to coffee. In the highlands, where coffee is grown, the family union and teamwork will always be the most important factor. To have a strong building that will stand the test of time, it must have a sturdy foundation and a family is one. With this limited edition we want to acknowledge those families in coffee culture who work together, that are united, where each member plays an integral role in the farm to produce outstanding coffee. Cases such as when everyone is engaged and involved. For instance, when the female figure is the person in charge of keeping the records and traceability of production, while the husband oversees the harvest, and the kids help with the drying and post-harvesting.
Family ventures and a strong union is also of paramount importance to start a business that will eventually transcend from generation to generation creating a legacy and tradition. For these families that we want to highlight, it is the love for coffee that prevails through generations and creates strong family bonds and stronger coffee businesses.
On the south of the department of Huila, you’ll find the biggest producer of coffee in Colombia: Pitalito. Coffee is everything here in this municipality, it moves de economy and permeates everything. At the corregimiento of Bruselas, a subdivision of the municipality of Pitalito, is where Efren Albeiro Erazo and Carmen Elisa Sanjuan have their farm Los Chorros. Both are third generation coffee farmers and have learned its ins and outs from a young age. Efren Albeiro, at age 15 started working in coffee and eventually when he was 28 years old alongside his brother Jose Hernando, they bought the farm in 1999 with their savings and at the time, the terrain was only pasture, they started to produce coffee from zero. When Efren Albeiro and Carmen Elisa married in 2010, she became part of the family and hence part of the production of coffee at them farm. Eventually, both noticed that specialty coffee was the way to go as it would bring them better earnings, so they started to take workshops and focused on producing quality. At the farm, they work as a team where Efren Albeiro takes care of the field chores, pulping and washing, while Carmen Elisa handles the fermentation process, drying and taking the samples to be cupped. Carmen Elisa’s interested in fermentation comes from her career as she studied and worked as nurse. She is fascinated by fermentation and learning more about it, as she is interested on how the coffee reacts with each fermentation and Carmen strongly believes that with a good process the coffee is healthier and better to consume. A small anecdote of her when she worked a nurse, was her amazing cooking skills and food, so once she taught someone from her team at the hospital how to cook something, but the team was adamant that it didn’t taste the same as when Carmen cooked. This attests to the magic Carmen has to make amazing food, hence cook really good coffee.
At the farm, they have clean agricultural practices, not using any agrochemicals and thinking about making the best agricultural practices to help and improve the environ- ment. They even have bees for pollination and production of honey. It is not an easy job at the farm to produce coffee, as they don’t have a road to access it so when they have to take the coffee to town or bring up stuff, they use horses. On that path towards the farm, you will cross three water creeks and hence the name Los Chorros. They believe in doing things the right way and always working towards achieving amazing coffees. Working as a family is better as there is trust and confidence in the other.
Currently, the way they process most of their coffee starts with a picking of the ripe cherries. This are then floated at a container in the wet mill of the farm, to take all the less dense cherries and any foreign material such as branches. The cherries are left ferment without water for 24 hours and from the container they are fed to the pulper. Then, the beans are fermented from 48 to 60 hours and subsequently washed twice where the beans are cleaned. The coffee is then sieved to clean it even further, and then taken to the drying beds where it will stay from 15 to 20 days depending on the climate.
Martha Ligia Reina Benavides:
Farm Name: Finca Agua Regada
Location: Pitalito, Huila, Colombia
Elevation: 1650 MASL
Total Farm Area: 12 hectares, 9 hectares planted with coffee
Harvest: September - December 2024
Shade-grown, washed process
Drying Method: Canopy or solar tent for 20 days
Martha and her husband Julio Isidro Lopez first arrived in Pitalito, Huila in 2010 looking for a piece of land and for new opportunities as they were forced to move from their hometown in Putumayo due to the violence of the civil war. They arrived, purchased their Finca in the community of Bruselas, but they knew nothing about coffee or other agricultural products. When they purchased the farm, they met a worker that used to live here. He was the one that taught Martha and Julio to produce coffee.
At first, they didn't dry the coffee on their farm -- they sold the wet parchment to cooperatives where they were being paid the market price and the coffee was blended up with the rest of Huila's coffees, without getting any incentive to produce high-quality coffee.
As the years passed, Martha and Julio asked people and inquired how they could sell their coffee at a better price. That was when they took two samples of coffee to Caravela's bodega in Pitalito, which had great results in the cupping lab. Since then, they have had the chance to improve their incomes, and this way, iomprove their infrastructure, build a better drying station, and improve their coffee trees. This process has had great results in Martha's life. She is now very well-known for producing great coffe, she has learned and understood many things about the culvation of coffee that she has used to become better each harvest. For Martha, her secret to producing great coffee is to work with love and passion!
