Monteblanco (Pink Bourbon)

The hands of spirit of Rodrigo and Claudia Sanchez crafted Monteblanco Pink Bourbon. The Monteblanco farm is located in the department of Huila near a town called San Adolfo. Huila is a well known coffee growing region and is one of the major producing regions in Colombia comprising 16% of the country’s total production. Huila’s economy is also closely connected to coffee, which typically means the culture and history is also closely connected. In this case, continuing that history is what set Rodrigo on his path to producing the Pink Bourbon. On this path, Rodrigo and Claudia accepted an opportunity to learn to cup, the process of evaluating coffee quality. This opportunity was offered to the children of coffee farmers in a two-fold effort to engage a younger generation of farmers in coffee and to help them understand the correlation between taste profile and value. With the new insight derived from cupping, Rodrigo developed a drive to not only improve coffee quality, but also to understand how to do it consistently. Rodrigo then cupped through coffee varieties sourced by his grandfather in the 1950’s and 60’s during a roya epidemic. He noticed the cup quality of the Pink Bourbon was similar to that of Gesha, so in 2014 he planted 3 hectares (7.4 acres) of this unique variety. Rodrigo also won the Yara Coffee Championship for 2017, highlighting his care and dedication to soil health and plant nutrition. As a winner he won a trip for two to the Specialty Coffee Association expo in the Seattle, WA.