This red honey process Pink Bourbon micro-lot from Wilder Lasso is super complex and interesting. One characteristic that we love about many of Wilder’s coffees that we have ...
This red honey process Pink Bourbon micro-lot from Wilder Lasso is super complex and interesting. One characteristic that we love about many of Wilder’s coffees that we have been noticing when cupping them is a slightly herbal note and this is a great example of that. In this coffee we are enjoying a sweet lavender note a little bit like Jägermeister, some delicate florals, fruitiness like dark berries and a slightly spicy element that reminds us of cinnamon buns and mince pies!
Although Wilder grew up on his mum and dad’s farm, El Diviso, he has only been working as a producer since 2017, which is amazing considering the world class coffees that they are producing already!
Like many young people that grow up on coffee farms, Wilder left to get a degree and work in the city and up until recently he had a career as a vet and worked with some of the best horse breeding farms in Colombia. However, after visiting his family farm in 2017, he saw that they were struggling financially and decided to change career and take El Diviso in a new direction, with speciality coffee. With his training in genetics and love for learning, he set up a coffee variety programme in the local town of Tocora and has been experimenting with fermentation and processing to elevate the cup quality and character. The family now have four small farms and produce a wide range of exotic varieties and experimental processes and their coffees have already featured multiple times in coffee competitions.
Wilder Lasso operates all four of the family farms utilising as many techniques as possible from Good Agricultural Practices (GAP). This is an international set of standards set out to ensure the safe and sustainable production of crops and livestock. These standards include practices such as intercropping to promote biodiversity, rejuvenating land that has degraded over time, use of organic fertilizers made from by-products, water management to reduce usage and treat wastewater and correct training of farm staff to ensure safety.
Wilder also has an out-growers program where they will process cherries from nearby farms, using their expertise, to help other farms get higher prices for their crops by boosting the quality.
Pink Bourbon is a variety that has gained a lot of attention in the speciality coffee world in recent years, and this is mostly because of the delicious cup quality that it can produce. Interestingly, Pink Bourbon has not actually been genotyped yet so we can’t actually be sure what exactly it is! As the name suggests, the cherries are usually a pinkish colour, although they can also appear more orange and sometimes striped. This has led people to believe that it is hybrid of Red Bourbon and Yellow Bourbon.
It is also believed that there are different strains of Pink Bourbon and as it is likely to be a hybrid, some are stable while others can revert back to either Red or Yellow Bourbon. This can also lead to varying cup qualities from different lots, some can be very high scoring, with high sweetness and floral notes, similar to some coffees from Southern Ethiopia, while other lots of Pink Bourbon can sometimes have a flatter cup profile.
Red honey process coffee is a method of processing coffee cherries that sits between the washed and natural methods. After the coffee cherries are harvested, the skin is removed, but a significant amount of the sticky mucilage (the fruit’s pulp) is left on the beans. The beans are then dried with this layer intact, which imparts sweetness and complexity. The term “red” refers to the drying speed and mucilage amount—red honey dries slower than yellow honey but faster than black honey. This process often results in coffee with fruity, sweet, and balanced flavours.