About This Coffee
Gloria Monteros’s background in agricultural and environmental studies gives her a strong foundation upon which to build new skills and improve her coffee quality. One way she’s applying her technical knowledge is by using soil analysis to determine optimal fertilization techniques. She’s also using her knowledge to control fermentation and pinpoint the right time to halt fermentation.
Her focus on producing high quality coffee enables her to increase her livelihood while protecting the surrounding environment.
Cultivation
Gloria raises honeybees to help pollinate her trees and to provide additional income and nutrition.
Harvest & Post-Harvest
Gloria selectively handpicks ripe, red cherry and processes it on her farm. Cherry is visually hand sorted, pulped and fermented. After fermentation, coffee is washed in clean water and then dried. Gloria rakes parchment frequently to ensure even drying.
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 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.
Coffee in Colombia
Colombia has been producing and exporting coffee renowned for their full body, bright acidity and rich aftertaste, since the early 19th century.
Colombia boasts a wide range of climates and geographic conditions that produce their own unique flavors in coffee. This also means that harvest times can vary quite a bit. In fact, between all its different regions, Colombia produces fresh crop nearly all year round.
The increasing focus on the specialty industry is changing the way traders and farmers do business. It is becoming more common for farmers to isolate the highest quality beans in their lots to market separately. These higher-quality lots are often sold under specific brands or stories.
Besides its wide variety of cup profiles, Colombia has quickly expanded its certification options over the past 10 years. The most common certifications available are Fairtrade, Rainforest Alliance and Organic.