Over the past couple of years Diego Horta has become a fast favorite of ours- producing some reliably stellar coffees in Huila, Colombia. You may remember that for each of the past two years we’ve had both his washed & natural Geshas, but this year we’re excited to showcase a bit more of what he has to offer. To start off we’ve got this washed Pink Bourbon. So you can expect a fresh and crisp coffee with notes of Plum, Cardamon and Tangerine. Did you ever play the “telephone game” as a kid? You know, the one where one person chooses something to say and whispers it into their neighbors ear, then they whisper it into the next person’s ear and so on and so forth until the last person announces what they’ve heard, and everyone has a laugh at how different it is from the initial statement. Like when we played it here at the roastery and I whispered “I love working here, everyone is so nice” and at the end someone loudly proclaimed “Lex picks his nose and eats boogers!” That’s more or less the story of the popular emergence of the Pink Bourbon varietal. Legend has it that after seeing strange pink cherries on a coffee tree in Colombia, the dispersion of this mysterious variety was traced through various neighboring farmers back to its origin. Nestled amongst “other” bourbons, there grew seemingly a cross-pollination or spontaneous mutation with distinctive pink cherries, a new and wonderful “Pink Bourbon.” Well this hot new coffee also just happened to cup very well, taking the specialty coffee world by storm on the cupping table, pairing a mysterious origin story with flavor-fueled intrigue.  With so much sudden spotlight and such an air of mystery about it, some responsible folk over at Cafe Imports decided to run genetic testing on the varietal and found some rather interesting results: the beloved Pink Bourbon, darling of the specialty coffee world, was not a mutation of Red or Yellow Bourbon- moreover it was genetically absolutely not a bourbon at all. In reality “Pink Bourbon” was undeniably an Ethiopian Landrace varietal that somehow made its way to Colombia, only to get lost and found again, with an unknown story perhaps more interesting than the legend that grew in truth’s void. Despite this clear cut lab-confirmed information, the name stuck: it may not genetically be a bourbon, but we can’t exactly “The artist formerly known as Prince” it, so the nomenclature Pink Bourbon is here to stay.  Incredibly interesting stuff, however I haven’t even begun writing about this specific coffee, apologies for such a long read. To speedrun the rest of the details, you may remember that for the last couple years we’ve had some stellar Geshas from Diego Horta? A sweet and delicious red grape tasting natural, and a clean lemongrass & floral washed? The consistency of those have really made Diego Horta a fast favorite of ours, and this year we’re thrilled to have gotten our hands on this Pink Bourbon offering from him, and now we finally get to share it with you. Expect a delightfully complex cup with distinctive cardamom and cola, balanced with a yellow plum and pineapple freshness.