The Story of Colombian Huila San Augustin Finca Loma Pink Bourbon Micro-Lot Specialty Coffee Beans

Pink Bourbon

FrontStreet Coffee's Pink Bourbon is the product of a genetic mutation. There are Red Bourbon and Yellow Bourbon varieties, and Pink Bourbon belongs to a rare new branch of that family. The bean is a romantic one: its cherries turn a soft pink when they ripen.

Pink Bourbon is a hybrid of Yellow Bourbon and Red Bourbon. Because cherry color is ultimately set by recessive genes in the pollen grains, out of 1,800 coffee trees each tree yields roughly 1.8kg of fresh fruit per season, which after processing comes to about 0.36kg of coffee beans.

Colombia Huila San Agustin La Pelota Pink Bourbon

FrontStreet Coffee · Colombia Huila San Agustin La Pelota Estate Pink Bourbon Microbatch Specialty Coffee

Sweet orange, sugarcane sweetness, delightful juiciness

Origin Details

Origin: Huila, Colombia

Variety: Pink Bourbon

Processing Plant: La Pelota Farm

Altitude: 1,944 meters

Processing Method: Washed

Harvest & Processing Time: 2017

Roast Level: Light

The town of San Agustin in the Huila region holds a national archaeological park designated as a UNESCO World Heritage site, and it is also where the earliest human remains in Colombia were found. In the stone sculptures, whose faces carry a faintly Asian cast, you can catch traces of early human migration, and the way history arranged itself is genuinely startling. Just as startling is the world's only Pink Bourbon, grown in this same region.

Most drinkers know Yellow Bourbon and Red Bourbon, but Pink Bourbon tends to be a little less familiar. At a Colombian coffee cupping during last year's Shanghai Hotelex exhibition, I had the chance to taste a Pink Bourbon that outperformed many Colombian Geishas, and only then did I discover this remarkable variety.

Pink Bourbon is a natural hybrid of Yellow Bourbon and Red Bourbon. Both parent varieties express their "dominant traits" through "dominant genes," which gives them fairly strong reproductive stability. The new Pink Bourbon that comes out of their crossing, by contrast, expresses "recessive traits" through "recessive genes," and offspring from hybrid reproduction tend to segregate heavily. What is more, coffee trees reproduce sexually through pollen, making them highly vulnerable to pollination by other dominant-trait varieties, which badly affects the following season's flowering and fruiting. This is the main reason Yellow Bourbon and Red Bourbon are relatively common while Pink Bourbon is rarely seen.

At this point some might ask: does that mean Pink Bourbon could be gone tomorrow after drinking it this year? Not quite. For one thing, the natural hybridization of Yellow Bourbon and Red Bourbon that produces Pink Bourbon will not stop. For another, nearly all Arabica coffee is "self-pollinating," meaning the flower and its pollen can come from the same plant, or even the same flower, which greatly improves the stability of recessive trait expression. That is why cultivating Pink Bourbon calls for a relatively isolated growing environment, to avoid genetic contamination from other varieties.

The Pink Bourbon variety was first discovered in Palestina, Huila, Colombia, and today it is grown mainly across Colombia's Huila region. This batch of FrontStreet Coffee's Colombian Pink Bourbon was chosen by the green bean buying team from a trading company who traveled to La Pelota Estate in the Huila San Agustin region. Every tree on this small estate is cultivated and managed with unusual care. Take this batch of FrontStreet Coffee's Colombian Pink Bourbon as an example: roughly 1,800 coffee trees, each yielding about 1.8kg of fresh fruit per season, which after depulping yields approximately 0.36kg of coffee beans. In a normal production season the total output of this coffee is less than 650kg.

On a bright afternoon, brew a cup of FrontStreet Coffee's Colombian Pink Bourbon and the delightful juiciness loosens the nerves. In the sunlight, garden fruit aromas come forward: small tomatoes, sweet orange, perhaps a hint of sugarcane sweetness. With each sip, as the temperature shifts, the changing aromas and flavors quietly update your understanding of Pink Bourbon. Slow down and stop doubting it: you are drinking coffee, and this is the brilliance of Pink Bourbon.

FrontStreet Coffee Recommendation

Sweet orange and sugarcane with a juicy, washed-mid cup like this one is best matched by something in the same Colombian fruit family. The FrontStreet Colombia Frontera Estate Xizhua is anaerobic natural and medium-light roasted, which pushes the fruit farther into passion fruit, grape, apricot and dried fruit while keeping the sweetness intact, and it works across pour-over, cold brew, drip bags and the moka pot. If you would rather stay with a clean, classic washed Colombian, the FrontStreet Colombia Huila Coffee takes a medium-dark roast and turns toward dark chocolate and a nutty sweetness with a full body, an easy daily cup that also carries well into Americano or latte.