Marco first planted Pink Bourbon (a natural hybrid between the Yellow and Red Bourbon varietals, originating in Huila) seven years ago, and planted a second lot of this varietal around two years ago. It’s now 20% of his crop, with the remainder being Caturra.
Growing Pink Bourbon brings its own challenges, though: more attention has to be paid during cherry picking to make sure they are at the right level of ripeness, because the varietal can over-ripen very quickly and doesn’t last as long on the tree. Pink Bourbon trees are more resilient to coffee leaf rust, but also produce fewer cherries than other varietals.
We’ve been getting coffee from MFR since 2015, and this lots proves that his coffee is only getting better and better. Here’s Reuben when he met Marco and the family back in that year:
