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In the cup: A juicy and well balanced coffee. Round sweet notes of peach and apricot with zestier notes of green apple and delicate floral tones.
SCA score: 88 points
Mouthfeel: Round, creamy
Variety: Pink Bourbon
Process: Washed
Producer: Asobombo Kooperativ
Altitude: 1500 - 1850 m.a.s.l.
Region: Pitalito, Huila
Background:
Grupo Asociativo El Bombo Pitalito Inza, Asombombo for short, was founded by Luis Alfredo Diaz to increase market access and attain fair, sustainable prices for their coffee. Today, their members across Huila, Caquetá, Cauca and Nariño are Organic certified and sell their coffees with Asobombo to garner higher prices for their hard work.
In Pitalito, farms tend to be slightly larger than other regions of Colombia. Most farms here are between 3 and 5 hectares, compared to 1 to 3 hectares in other regions.
Most of the families living in Pitalito today immigrated from Nariño in the 19th and 20th centuries. Nariño used to be much more densely populated than Huila, but many people migrated to Pitalito in search of affordable, fertile land.
In addition to coffee, many producers in Pitalito also grow sugarcane. Asobombo helped member communities build mills where farmers can process sugarcane into panela, a typical raw sugarcane product that is common in rural Colombia.
Members and their families selectively handpick ripe, red cherry and process it on their farms. They pulp cherry on small handcrank pulpers and ferment it in tanks for 12 to 36 hours. Following fermentation, parchment is washed in clean water and laid in parabolic beds, marquesinas or patios to dry. They rake parchment frequently to ensure even drying.
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 that wows coffee professionals and consumers alike. 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.
The Huila region is one of the most well-known coffee growing areas of Colombia. The Department of Huila has a population of 1.125 million and is located in the southwest of the country. The capital of the department is Neiva, a city of about 380,000.
Along with Cauca and Nariño, Huila is one the three departments where the Colombian Massif is located. A massif is a group of mountain ranges and the Colombian Massif, which is known locally as Nudo de Almaguer, provides up to 70% of safe drinking and agricultural water for the Colombian population.
The Magdalena River, Colombia’s largest river, runs through the region, providing plenty of water for coffee farming and generating (directly and indirectly) up to 86% of Colombia's GDP. The mountain range also features the fertile volcanic soil so typical to the Andean Mountains.