Colombia Oporapa Pink Bourbon

Both coffees that make up this lot are from Oporapa, Pitalito, with the majority coming from a farmer named Manuel Antonio Peña. His farm, La Cumbra is in the village of El Carmen, and reaches an altitude of just over 1800 meters above sea level. The farm is 12 hectares in total, with roughly 7 planted in coffee. Through the years, Manuel has chosen to plant his farm in a variety of cultivars, from commonly seen Caturra and Tabi, to less common types like Pink Bourbon. It gets its name from the pinkish coloring of the cherry, often looking a little more orange than pink (though not as orange as "Orange Bourbon" - yes, really). There's been genetic testing that's linked samples of this variety to Ethiopian landrace, though it's still quite likely related to Bourbon (the genetic distinction between Bourbon, Typica, and Ethiopian types is very subtle). And while variety does not guarantee quality, we found these two lots to be a notch above the Caturra and Colombia coffees we tasted in terms of sweetness and aroma. 10% of this lot is from another nearby farm owned by Hector Diaz, but unfortunately don't have farm specifics at this time. Both farmers are members of El Bombo cooperative, a coffee association that represents small farmers all over Colombia's Southern regions. The coop supports farmer members in many ways, like through their seed program where varieties like Pink Bourbon are distributed in the hopes of maximizing return on their yields. We spent some time at El Bombo office in Pitalito last year, and were able to select a number of coffees from their members, including several small lots of Pink Bourbon like this one.