Huila Mariano Leal Pink Bourbon FW

Father-son duo Mariano and Aldair Leal cultivate coffee on their farm, Finca Las Palmas.  Mariano purchased the farm in the early 2010s. Aldair, a young man in his 20s, is continuing his father’s legacy of coffee farming.  

Cherry is selectively handpicked and pulped on a classic pulper. Then, it is fermented for 10 to 20 hours, depending on ambient temperature. After fermentation, parchment is washed in clean water and laid to sundry. Parchment takes an average of 7 to 15 days to dry. Throughout drying, parchment is turned regularly to promote even drying and carefully inspected to remove any damaged beans.  

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.  

COFFEESUR (Precooperativa Comercializadora de Café del Sur) was founded by Francy Alarcon in 2013. Alarcon’s parents grew up in Colombia’s coffee-growing regions and her dual interest in her heritage and the international export business inspired her to form COFFEESUR.

She identified Acevedo, in Huila, as an area ripe for a specialty coffee revolution. A superb microclimate combined with an existing interest in transitioning to specialty coffee among producers made the area an easy choice.  

In addition to exporting green coffee from established farmers, Alarcon has created the “Next Generation” project that focuses on the children of coffee farmers and at-risk youth in the community. “Next Generation” offers young people in coffee-producing communities a chance to be involved in specialty coffee and acts as a stepping stone to a future career in the industry. 

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.