Ildefonso CórdobaPink Bourbon

Ildefonso is a linchpin of sorts for the Guacharos group. Acting as the resident seed guy, he’s constantly sharing his knowledge about different cultivars and sharing seed stock with the neighbourhood and other Guacharos members. 

The culture of the Guacharos group (Ilde contributes to this significantly) is one where they are rewriting the script as independent producers working as a collective (not a co-op), converting to organic agriculture, making their own soil amendments, taking care of waste water with stone and sand filtration systems (an ongoing issue with waterways and soil erosion down the mountainsides in coffee growing areas). Many of them are also taking advantage of the free nationalized college SENA, catering to coffee growers with programs around coffee processing, roasting, and brewing. It’s extremely common to visit a farm and they’re brewing a chemex or V60 of their latest crop for you with a good quality handmill. You’d feel right at home. 

Known as Bourbon Rosado in Colombia, this is an Ethiopian Landrace variety, rumoured to be a part of variety trials in a state breeding program decades ago in Colombia and grown by many farmers within and outside Colombia today.

Ilde prepared this lot in the same way as most other washed lots in the region: It’s been fermented in cherry in sealed bags for 60-70 hours, then depulped and fermented under water for 48 hours before drying the resulting parchment on raised beds in a slow and steady way. Both that in-cherry fermentation step and the additional underwater step allows for a low to no oxygen environment, lending a lot of those tropical and often banana-like flavours ever present in Pink Bourbon.