About This Single Origin 

Colombia Linarco Rodriguez | Palestina Huila (Single Origin Filter)

ROAST:  Filter Roast

PROCESS: Washed

REGION: Palestina Huila

ELEVATION: 1710

VARIETAL:  Pink bourbon

CUP: Floral, Stewed yellow pear, Apricot, Brown sugar.

We love to roast and serve coffees that are what we consider to be ‘classic’ examples of combinations between place, varietal and processing. Through our friends at Cata Coffee and Langdon Coffee Merchants, we bring you the Pink Bourbon from Linarco Rodriguez. This is a 3rd generation coffee farm that has been passed down for almost 60 years. It is split between 7 siblings, each of which have their own designated area of the farm. The farm also has its own communal wet and dry mills, enabling the Rodriguez family to have full control over their coffees.   

We think that this is a good reference point for a washed process, Colombian, pink bourbon. But what do we mean by classic? Recently we have learnt that pink bourbon has been found through genetic data testing to actually be an Ethiopian landrace varietal. That is, not a mutation of yellow and red bourbon in Colombia, but instead native to Ethiopia. For many of us out there who have Ethiopia as their favourite coffee origin followed closely by Colombia, this is a nice kind of confirmation bias. However, the debate still lingers on as to whether a coffee can taste classic. If there is to one day be discovered a genetically bourbon coffee that is pink in colour, we will have to reassess. For now, we consider the high sweetness, alongside its cleanliness and orange-like acidity to be a flavour signature.  

The process of this Pink Bourbon is elegant and simple. Ripe cherries are delivered to the dry mill where they are floated. This helps remove impurities as coffee cherries can appear perfectly ripe externally, only to be not uniform internally. The sorted cherries are pulped and left in open air tanks for 48 hours. This occurs at approximately 15 degrees and has the effect of softening the outer layers of the cherry so that it is ready for washing. After washing the coffee is dried in parchment over a period of 25 days. At the dry mill the green coffee is then packed in tarpaulins before being left to rest for 12 days. This is a period when the moisture content and activity stabilises and is monitored before being sent as samples for assessment. 

We hope you enjoy this pink bourbon and we doubt it will last for very long!