Colombia HONEY BURST, roasted by Amsterdam-based DAK Coffee Roasters, is a coffee that feels like a delightful spring breakfast—a bowl of ripe fruit accompanied by a cup of delicate black tea with citrus zest and a spoonful of honey. In the cup, fruity notes of yellow fruit jam gradually unfold, blending with the sweetness of honeycomb. The light aftertasteof black teawith a drop of lemon iswarm and dreamy.
Behind this coffee is farmer Mario Gomez, who runs the Finca La Soledad farm in Colombia’s Huila region. At Finca La Soledad, Mario Gomez focuses primarily on the Pink Bourbon variety, which is highly prized among specialty coffee enthusiasts. This rare variety, created through the natural crossbreeding of red and yellow Bourbon, stands out for its elegance and the distinctive pink color of its coffee cherries. It is a relatively demanding variety that requires meticulous care during both cultivation and subsequent processing, but the reward is an exceptionally complex flavor with pronounced sweetness and a juicy, fruity character.
Honey processing plays a major role in the character of this coffee. After harvesting, the skin is removed from the coffee cherries, but a portion of the sweet pulp remains on the bean, which gradually ferments during drying and influences the resulting flavor. This sticky, sugar-rich surface, known as mucilage, gives the coffee a fuller body, more pronounced sweetness, and a delicately fruity character. At the same time, this method requires very careful control of the drying process, as the amount of pulp left on the beans and the drying rate significantly influence the final profile in the cup.