Colombia Ticuna Pink Bourbon

Whole bean coffee 

Roasting and shipping schedule (Order by 8 AM EST for same-day shipping): 

Monday December 8

Thursday December 11

Monday December 15

Thursday December 18 (last shipping date before Christmas)

Origin: Colombia
Region: Huila
Locality: Garzón
Farm names: El Esquilino and El Diviso
Producers: Café Ticuna (José Jadir Losada & Kyle Bellinger)
Altitude: 1800 - 2000 meters
Process: Washed lacto-fermentation
Variety: Pink Bourbon
Tasting notes: Honey, blackberry, plum

Café Ticuna is a collective of three farms in Huila, Colombia owned by José Jadir Losada and Kyle Bellinger. The three farms are El Esquilino and El Diviso, both in the town of Garzón, and El Mirador in Suaza. José and Kyle also own Osito Coffee, one of our primary partners for sourcing green coffee from several origins. They met over a decade ago when Kyle, an American, was working for a US-based roasting company and buying coffee from José, a life-long Colombian coffee farmer. It wasn’t long before Kyle, hearing that José was looking for a business partner, flew to Colombia to finalize the deal for a 50% stake in José’s farm El Mirador. A couple of years later, recognizing a need for a transparent relationship-oriented buying infrastructure in Suaza, they founded Osito Colombia to source and export coffee from other Suaza farmers. As coffee farmers themselves, they worked tirelessly to build a sourcing company that puts farmers first. In the intervening years they grew Osito’s reach in Colombia, and began importing coffee from producers in a handful of other countries to the US, Europe, and Australia. They also bought two additional farms in nearby Garzón and rolled them up with their original farm El Mirador into a new business, Café Ticuna.

We first met José and Kyle in 2018, shortly after they began importing in the US, and worked with them that year to source coffee from direct partners in Ethiopia and Burundi. We’ve continued to build those relationships through Osito ever since, and have added Colombia, Brazil, Mexico, and India to our shared portfolio. We’ve traveled with them to origin on several occasions and built a tight partnership in the process. However, after all those years working with José and Kyle in their capacity as importers and exporters, this is the very first time we’re buying coffee from them as producers.

At Café Ticuna, they focus much of their energy on developing innovative processing techniques with the potential to raise the quality of, and therefore add value to, Colombian coffee. One such process is a tightly controlled lacto-fermentation, which can be combined with any of the traditional washed, honey, or dry processes. This particular lot is a lacto-fermented washed coffee. First the coffee cherries are floated in water to remove any lower density fruits, which rise to the top to be skimmed off. The remaining cherries are then fermented in a 2% salt solution for 30 hours. The solution inhibits the growth of microorganisms except for the bacteria that metabolize sugars into lactic acid. The fruit is then de-pulped and the seeds are fermented in a fresh batch of the same solution for another 30 hours, after which they are washed with fresh water and dried on covered, raised beds. The goal of lacto-fermentation is to elevate a coffee’s sweetness and complexity. José and Kyle showed us how this process works a couple of years ago during a visit to their farm El Mirador, and the depth of their knowledge and attention to detail was stunning. Not surprisingly, so are the results in the cup.

The Pink Bourbon variety, which has become almost synonymous with excellent Colombian coffee. While it first appeared on the scene in Huila, Colombia, genetic testing has identified it as an Ethiopian landrace. How it first came to be cultivated there is still unknown. It is prized for its unique profile, reminiscent of coffees from Ethiopia due to its fruit-forward, dynamic, and sometimes floral character.

This lacto-fermented Pink Bourbon tastes to us like honey, blackberry, and lime.

Transparency

This is our first year buying from Café Ticuna, though our sourcing relationship with José and Kyle began when they founded Osito Coffee in 2018. We scored this lot 88 points and purchased 1 70kg bag for $19.35/lb FOT.