Flavour: Rose hips, Red berries, Aromatic
Producer: Karen Burbano
Origin: San Augustin, Huila - Colombia
Culitvars: Pink Bourbon
Process: Wet fermented, washed and dried on raised beds in shade
Weight: 250G
We’re so excited to share Karen Burbano’s coffee with the world for the first time ever. At 18 years old and as the fourth generation of coffee growers in her family, it’s been her father Jose who has taught her all he knows about specialty coffee and has done so with an infectious love and passion that shows in the cup.
Don Jose was the first member of his family to make the daunting step into producing coffee for the specialty market. His commitment and his success has been imparted on Karen down to the smallest details - from the importance of collecting cherries at the correct ripeness, to his experiences with fermentation that he was built up over years, to the things to watch over for in the drying process, all the way to the hand selecting of damaged seeds and the proper storage of the parchment coffee prior to delivering to for sale. Her admiration for her father drew her in the coffee fields alongside him, and she’s now hopeful she can follow in his footsteps and in his advice. As a family, Do Jose and Doña Doris have always believed in education and Karen recently completed her studies in public administration. During her time as a student, it was her role to take care of the processing and the hand selecting of the coffee prior to delivery. At her graduation in 2022, Jose and Doris acquired a new piece of land attached to their existing farm at a slightly higher altitude and they put it in Karen's care with the hope that she could earn her own way through this piece of land, and to not become disconnected from the tradition of coffee growing. With a lot of help from them both, she achieved this incredible first lot from this tiny farm of 3000 Pink Bourbon trees.
The cherries are collected every 15 days at peak ripeness and then are left to ferment overnight in a hopper, before being depulped the next morning. The seeds are then covered with water to cover the mass, and the coffee from the next day’s collection is depulped into the already fermenting mass. This pattern is repeated until all the ripest cherry has been picked, between 3 - 4 days.
Once the collection is complete, the whole mass is left to ferment for 48 hours, covered in water. It is then rinsed and moved to the solar dryer where it is dried for 18 - 20 days.
In Karen’s words:
“I’m very young and I lack a lot of experience in life and in coffee, there’s so much to learn and understand but with all the help of my parents we can achieve and continue forward.”
