Beto Narvaez (Pink Bourbon) | Huila, Colombia
US$0.00
Producer: Beto Narvaez
Farm: Buenos Aires
Place: Bruselas, Huila, Colombia
Variety: Pink Bourbon
Processing: Innovative Washed (Multi-stage)
Roast level: light (filter)
Harvest: September 2025
Pink Bourbon from Beto Narvaez’s main farm, Buenos Aires, in Bruselas, Huila. Multi-stage washed processing; Beto uses both whole cherry and depulped coffee fermentations to amplify floral aromatics and pink fruit characteristics. The cup profile is floral and sweet with lavender and bergamot flavours, along with things like fruitloop, pink berries, and five alive.
Beto
When Beto started growing coffee as a teenager in Cabeceras, Huila with his mother a few decades ago, he caught the bug, eventually purchasing a farm from his uncle. For what he lacks in formal training, he’s more than made up for it in staying curious and continually learning about all aspects of coffee production. Winning 2nd place in the Yara Championship 2015, was rocket fuel for Beto’s interest in coffee as craft. He has 2 plots, one 1.5ha and the other 5ha. In addition to Caturra, he has Pink Bourbon, Sidra, Ombligón, F6, Cenicafe, and is continually seeking out variety diversity – He’s looking at Laurina, & maybe even Wush Wush for a 3rd plot he’s looking to buy when he gets financing sorted.
Processing
Beto’s processing technique seems to amplify aromatics. There’s a floral lemon zest and sugar cereal spiced quality right upfront, and comes through in the cup with complex rose syrup, tropical acidity and subtle, complex sweet herbs (like herbes de provence).
After picking Beto methodically hand sorts his cherries, followed by floating them, before starting his fermentations, which begin with whole fruit in a hermetically sealed bag for 18-20hrs followed by another 48-50hrs in a low O2 environment after depulping gives beneficial microbes layers of opportunity to do their thing. Finishing these ferment steps with a hot water wash before drying on raised mesh beds promotes consistent results. He’s so good at this. Nate and I feel fortunate to be able to work with this modern take on Pink Bourbon.
Pink Bourbon
A suspected escapee of the Cenicafé hybrid seed trials of the 1960s-80s, a the name, this variety is closer genetically to an ancestral landrace from Ethiopia.
