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Colombia Huila Palo De Rosa Pink Bourbon
This delicious coffee from Huila Palestina has "summertime" written all over it! It's vibrant, balanced and clean with flavors of pineapple and papaya with subtle floral notes and a chocolate marshmallow undertone. It's perfect for an iced coffee on a hot summer afternoon!
We’ve featured many single origin Bourbons in the past, and they’ve always been stellar coffees. Bourbon is perhaps the most famous coffee cultivar, having been imported from Yemen to Bourbon Island (now called La Réunion, located east of Madagascar) and eventually landing in the Americas in the mid-1800s. It's revered for its consistent quality and has fathered other famous varieties including caturra and catuai. Bourbon has several genetic offshoots characterized by the color of the ripe coffee cherries with red being the most well-known, however, pink bourbon has made quite a name for itself the last few years. Give it a try and you’ll know why!
This community blend from 14 small family-owned farms is exclusively pink bourbon varietal; red and yellow are naturally occurring variations and pink is a genetic hybrid of the two. As the names suggest, the ripe cherries display these colors quite clearly making it difficult to mistake them as anything but ripe! This regional blend is expertly crafted to be vibrantly bright, balanced, and clean. If you want to dip your toes into fruity coffees but you’re not quite ready for a natural, this washed coffee is a great one to try. It reminds us of a natural processed coffee with lovely sweetness and fruitiness of a natural without the intensity. I guess that’s why the word “vibrant” kept popping up while we cupped it. In fact, this coffee has “summertime” written all over it! It’s the perfect candidate for a flash iced coffee on a hot afternoon. We noted flavors of ripe tropical fruit, such as fresh pineapple and papaya, along with ripe lime and something floral. We couldn’t nail it down, but there’s a real jasmine or magnolia undertone, maybe both! Finally, the cup’s rounded out with an almost marshmallow sweetness along and a gentle milk chocolate note. Don’t get the wrong idea, this doesn’t taste like fruity, flowery hot chocolate! The fruit is the star of the show, the floral notes are the backup singers and the marshmallow and chocolate are the rhythm section.
Reminder! This coffee is raw, you must roast it before brewing
Arrival Date: April 7, 2023. US Arrival March 2023, Packed in GrainPro
Acidity & Brightness: Vibrant acidity and fairly sweet
Balance & Finish: Well balanced with a very clean finish
Body & Texture: Full bodied with a creamy texture
Flavors: Tropical fruit, lime, floral, marshmallow and cocoa powder
Grade: 1600-1800 masl (single cultivars don’t apply to the typical Columbian grading system which is based on screen size)
Processing: Fully washed and dried inside solar dryers that provide protection from the rain
Grower: 14 producers | Terra Coffee SAS
Region: Palestina Municipality, Huila Department, Colombia
Varieties: Pink Bourbon
Recommended Roast Range: City to Full City (Light to medium)
We like this coffee best at City to Full City (Light to medium), Most roasters will have the best results at City+ (Light-medium) or near the end of 1st crack. If you’re looking for more intense acidity and florality, end the roast as early as 30seconds to 1minute into 1st crack. Full City roasts (between 1st and 2nd crack) will offer more rounded sweetness and less acidity if that’s your goal. Normally we think fully washed Colombian coffee is an excellent candidate for darker roasting, but for coffees like this we wouldn’t recommend it. Past medium you’ll lose florality and fruit very quickly.
Royal Coffee - "Ever stop to think about all the variables that factor into creating a distinct, complex, clean and consistent regional blend? It is mind boggling if you think about terroir to processing and everything in between. And what about the human factor from farm management all the way through to brewing. Even more mind boggling. But if you think about it, the backbone of Colombian offerings are regional blends cultivated in many parts on small family-owned farms. It’s hard to pinpoint why some regional blends rise to the top each year but it sure is exciting when they do. This traceable community blend with a vibrant regional profile comes from 14 producers with small farms in the municipality of Palestina within the department of Huila. Each producer has their own micro-mill where they carefully harvest cherries, depulp, ferment, wash and gently dry the parchment on raised beds. Imagine the harmony between these producers in farm management and post-harvest practices to achieve a clean and consistent blend. But also, just enough differences from farm to farm to create a rich complexity of flavors. And then imagine all the crucial logistical demands for things like warehousing and milling coffee for export before this coffee reached the international market. There is likely an unnamed cupper there in Huila who spent a lot of time putting the small lots together for this exceptional regional blend.”
