Guacharos Pink Bourbon FW

Founded in 2014, Inconexus’s Guacharos program – named after a bird species indigenous to Central and South America – helps farmers improve coffee quality while protecting the environment. Their goal is to new, more sustainable ways to produce high quality coffee in environmentally-beneficial ways. Producers work to improve their coffee quality while preserving their surrounding environment and reduce the impact of their farm’s ecological footprint.

Producers working with the Guacharos program see a myriad of benefits, including higher prices for their coffees and healthier, more sustainable farms. Inconexus works with producers to provide agricultural training, access to tools and mentorship to help producers become entrepreneurs who actively promote their coffees while improving their environmental impact. 

With Inconexus’ support, producers plant Pink Bourbon and other popular varieties, including Geisha, which flourish at their high altitudes of 1,500 to 1,800+ meters above sea level. At those altitudes, Pink Bourbon produce higher cup scores and are more disease resistant. The higher quality coffee they now produce enable them to preserve the forested land on their farms by maximizing value on the existing land where coffee is planted. 

Producers selectively handpick ripe, red cherry and process it on their farm. Cherry is visually hand sorted, pulped and fermented. After fermentation, coffee is washed in clean water and then dried. Producers rake parchment frequently to ensure even drying. It takes approximately 10 to 20 days for parchment to dry.

Inconexus’s Guacharos program, named after a bird species indigenous to Central and South America, supports farmers working to improve their coffee quality while preserving their surrounding environment and reducing the impact of their farms' ecological footprint.

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.