Here’s a special treat from Huila!

44-year old Luz Dary works on her 3 hectare farm in the township of Villa Fátima, outside of Bruselas, Huila. She maintains about 4,000 caturra trees, some pink bourbon trees, and, 3 years ago, she renovated her variedad Colombia trees with the subject of this release – “borbon ají”. 

This new variety is growing quickly in popularity in Huila, and has been the darling of recent barista competitions (Mikael Jasin from Indonesia, crowned as the World Barista Champion of 2024, chose to use a Huila Borbon Aji for his milk and signature beverage for example).

Luz procured the seeds from fellow Guácharos group member Ildefonso Cordoba who manages a seed nursery. Ildefonso got the seeds from another farm in the township of La Esperanza, and the variety is native to Bruselas- the town around which the Guácharos members are based. The variety has piqued a lot of group members’ interest- the trees themselves seem to be resistant to fungal issues like coffee leaf rust, and the cherries ripen to a chili color, and some producers say that they think that the cherry has a slight spiciness to it- hence the “aji” (chili) name! Some pickers say that their fingers sting a bit after picking the cherries too. Around Bruselas, another local producer- Jose Salazar- won 6th place in Colombia’s Cup of Excellence competition using a bourbon aji coffee, though genetic tests later reveals that the variety itself is actually not a bourbon, but rather that it stems from an Ethiopian heirloom variety.

PROCESSING

Luz Dary starts with ripe cherries, which she floats in water (to remove the under- and over-ripe cherries). The washed cherries are then sealed in a low oxygen environment (a Grain Pro bag), where they begin to (or continue to) ferment. After 40 hours, Luz de-pulps the coffee, and leaves it to ferment in a plastic drum for up to 60 additional hours of fermentation. From there, she washes just once and takes the coffee to dry. During peak harvest seasons, she pays a significantly higher price to pickers, which allows her to ask that they only pick ripe cherries.

Pricing transparency: we personally paid Ildefonso $4,500,000 pesos per carga of parchment via our Colombian entity Shared Source SAS.