Luz Divia Huila FW

Luz Divia “Sandy” Fierro and her husband Elpidio “Pillo” Carrillo moved to Finca El Meson in 2016, when they built a house and planted 20,000 Pink Bourbon trees on what had previously been a cattle farm. They received the farm from Pillo’s father, Ángel, who manages his own coffee farm in neighboring vereda.

The couple has two daughters – Laura Camila, nine, and Salomé, three – and are expecting their 3^rd child, a boy, who they plan to name Ángel Martin, after Pillo’s father.  

The farm’s soil is predominately loam, with a few pockets of sand. The landscape and the farm biodiversity is enriched by an area of protected forest reserve and a natural waterfall on the property.

This lot comes from the first batch of Pink Bourbon trees that Sandy and Pillo planted in 2017. In 2018, they planted an addition 26,000 Pink Bourbon trees that the family expects while yield their first harvest in the 2020/2021 season.

The family employs 5 year-round workers who help with farm maintenance including weeding and fertilizing. Fertilizer is applied 3 times a year.

Pillo and Sandy also cultivate plantains, yucca and sugarcane to feed themselves and their 5 year-round workers. They also have 4 dairy cows.

During the harvest season, the family employs up to 15 laborers to help them selectively handpick ripe cherry. Workers who come from far away live on the farm during the harvest months. Sandy and Pillo feel that it is very important to pay their workers well and make sure their stay on the farm is comfortable. They pay pickers by the kilo and their year-round workers are paid a daily wage.

Following the harvest, Pillo processes the cherry at the farm’s beneficio. Pillo floats the coffee to remove any damaged or underripe cherry. Then, he places selected cherry in clean bags to sit overnight. In the morning, he pulps the cherry and then ferments it for 36 hours. After fermentation, Pillo washes parchment in clean water and lays it to dry. Pillo rakes parchment frequently to ensure even drying. It takes approximately 18 days for parchment to dry.

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. 

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.