Villa Betulia Pink Bourbon

Luis Aníbal Calderón is one of the finest producers Cofinet works with. In 2011, Luis approached his local town’s Specialty Coffee Association as the price he was receiving for his coffee on the commodity market barely covered its production costs. They were willing to pay 15% above the commodity price, enough to encourage him to explore the speciality coffee market further. As a result, in 2012 he planted 5,000 Gesha trees and waited three years for the trees to bear fruit. In 2015, he embarked on a mission to convert his entire farm to more exotic coffee varieties. Now Luis’ farm is a beacon for speciality coffee production. With the assistance of Cofinet, Luis has worked to improve his processing methods for high-end micro-lots. He is now a master in many processing methods including extended fermentation, honeys and naturals.

Cofinet is mindful of environmental conservation and the preservation of our ecosystem throughout the entire cultivation and processing stages of coffee. Since its inception in 2015, Cofinet has been involved in projects to offset and minimise its environmental footprint. Water conservation is one of its sustainable initiatives, focusing on processing 95% of its coffees as naturals and honeys, which significantly reduces water consumption. It’s involved in reforestation, planting thousands of native trees, compensating for the carbon footprint generated in the community and supporting native forests. At the end of 2023, it finalised a new sustainable project at its processing facilities, a built-in system that treats the wastewater produced by coffee processing, protecting the water springs and local ecosystem.

Like many other new or “rediscovered” Arabica varieties, the exact origins of Pink Bourbon are unknown, but it’s common to hear that Pink Bourbon is a natural hybrid of Red and Yellow Bourbon varieties. Pink Bourbon is challenging to grow successfully; however, it stands out for its strikingly coloured cherries and its sweet and complex flavour profile, which is usually more citrussy, fruity and honey-like. Specific processing methods can also help distinguish Pink Bourbon even further. This variety is said to work well with anaerobic fermentation (a coffee processing method that removes oxygen from the environment where coffee cherries ferment, resulting in a more complex flavour profile), as the lack of oxygen causes micro-organisms to break down the sugars in the coffee cherries more slowly, resulting in a more complex flavour profile.