We have been working with José for 3 years now and have loved watching his flourishing journey in getting his coffee the recognition it deserves. José left the textile sector to dedicate himself to coffee full-time in 2015 when he was 23 years old, to help his father re-establish the farm after his mother, Clara, passed away. The brand “1959” is named in honor of the year of her birth. José has come a long way on his coffee education journey and we are tasting the rewards of his dedication. After receiving feedback from his colleagues at the SCA Expo in Seattle in 2015, José returned to Colombia and began studying coffee and applied some of the conversations he had in Seattle about pH, Brix and temperature control. Along with the help of his father, a food scientist, they began working on the basics: Cleanliness, manual selection of ripe cherry, even and controlled drying (slow and shade essential to José’s process) and we are now happy to see his innovations bring us this Panela Sticky Pink Bourbon. A beautiful thing we see happening in Colombia is that producers buy cherries from each other to process in their own labs or processing stations. These Pink Bourbon Cherries were purchased by José from Finca El Diamante in Huila and brought to his processing station, La Clarita in Quindio. The Process: Coffee cherries are collected in the ripest stage when there is a ripe pink color (22 Brix degrees), the same reason the variety is called Pink Bourbon. Some characteristics of Pink Bourbon are good production, beautiful pink ripening and the sweetest mucilage you can imagine. Pink bourbon has the perfect level of sweetness for pursuing the creation of Panela Sticky. Cherries were collected and put into GrainPro Bags to start the 13 hour night time trip from Huila to Quindio, where the 1959 fermentation and drying facility is located. Traveling during the night helps to control the temperature in the first stage of the fermentation that takes place in the truck. Once arrived in Quindio and after a full 24 hr. fermentation, they pulp the coffee before putting it into closed tanks for another 24hr anaerobic fermentation, after which they open the tank, wash the coffee, rinse it, and return it once more into a dry, closed tank for the third and final 24 hr. Fermentation. Then the coffee is washed and rinsed a second time before laying it onto raised drying beds. The end step of this process is resting the coffee, in a long, slow, shade-drying process that takes on average 40 days. All this results in the stunning coffee Cafe 1959 calls, Panela Sticky. Leon visited Jose’s farm and lab end of September and wrote up a field report to capture Jose’s beautiful farm, lab, and family. Hit up the Explore / News section of our site to learn about this special place and partner. Thanks to Yellow Rooster Coffee Imports for the supply and for visiting our roastery with Jose a couple of times in the last years.