Finca La Tijuana is located in Huila, Colombia, and is managed by Lubier Beltran, a 33-year-old second-generation coffee grower. The farm consists of 5 hectares of land, with 3 hectares dedicated to coffee growing and the remaining 2 are a natural preserve. It sits at an elevation of 1,800 masl. Lubier has planted over 10,000 coffee trees on his small farm, all of which are the highly sought-after Pink Bourbon and Caturra varieties. Lubier processes his coffee in a simple but careful way. Upon harvesting, the cherries are left to ferment in the hopper for 30 hours, after which they are de-pulped and placed in tanks of submerged in water to ferment for an additional 75 hours. The parchment is then washed and left to dry in raised beds for around 12 – 15 days, depending on the weather. Finca La Tijuana’s specialty coffee production has been a huge step for Lubier. Born and raised in Vereda Los Olivos in Palestina, Lubier has been around coffee production his entire life, helping his parents in every and absorbing every bit of knowledge he could. After getting married, he bought Finca La Tijuana in 2020 and this is our first ever purchase from Lubier! This 100% Pink Bourbon lot presents a super clean and fruit forward cup high in malic and tartaric acids - we get prominent notes of pink apple, red grapes, with a cane-sugary sweetness to balance it all out. The ‘Pink Bourbon’ variety first burst onto the scene in Pitalito in 2014 and has captured the attention of many farmers due to its rust resistance, high productivity, and excellent cup quality. Many aging Caturra trees that have become susceptible to rust (a disease caused by fungus) have been replaced with this new variety. The Pink Bourbon variety was so named because it was seen growing amidst red and yellow bourbon cultivars, and showed a bright pink cherry color, somewhere between the colors of those other well known bourbon varieties. This turns out to be a complete misnomer as new genetic research has found that “pink bourbon” is not closely related to Bourbon, but is actually an imported Ethiopian Landrace variety! We find this sort of thing super interesting and love the way this sort of experimentation allows us to compare the flavors inherent to the bean variety itself vs. what’s imparted by the farmer and local soil and weather, i.e. terroir.