This Colombian coffee from the Danish roastery La Cabra in Aarhus has a clean, sweet, and very elegant profile. In the cup, notes of mango and papaya unfold, resulting in a profile built on ripe tropical fruitiness, a delicate juiciness, and a fuller—yet still very smooth—body. This is not a wild or heavily fermented coffee, but rather a precisely crafted cup in which sweetness and clarity are held in a very pleasant balance. Pink Bourbon shows its riper and rounder side here, yet it doesn’t lose its lightness or clarity. The result is a coffee that comes across as distinctive and modern, yet at the same time very refined and natural.
The coffee comes from Colombia’s Huila region, where Luis Edgar Camacho grows coffee near the town of Palestina. He is among the producers in Huila who have long been pushing the boundaries of quality and experimenting with processing methods, and it is precisely this experience that is clearly reflected in the final lot. On his smaller plots, he works with the Geisha, Pink Bourbon, Caturra, and Bourbon Fragrancia varieties, and this lot consists specifically of Pink Bourbon grown at an elevation of 1,800 meters. The combination of high-altitude terroir, meticulous farming practices, and a variety with great aromatic potential gives this coffee its clean, sweet, and tropical character.
The processing method is washed, but it involves an unconventional triple fermentation. Ripe cherries first ferment for 24 hours in open tanks, then are washed and continue fermenting for another 48 hours in closed tanks. They are then hulled and undergo a final 96-hour fermentation in closed tanks with added water, which helps slow the rise in temperature and keep the entire process under control. Only then is the coffee thoroughly washed and dried in solar dryers for 20 to 25 days. The result is a very clean yet full-bodied expression of Pink Bourbon, in which sweet and ripe tropical fruit notes truly shine.