Colombia
Marco Fidel Rodriguez
Pink Bourbon

This microlot of washed Pink Bourbon (which we’ve bought in full!) shows the quality potential of this variety: complex and highly fruit-driven. We taste peach, strawberry and black tea

Washed process Pink Bourbon

Flavour: yellow peach, mango, jelly bean

Body: Acidity:

Roast: omni (filter + espresso)

Marco Fidel Rodriguez has been on our shelves yearly since 2015, but this time, it’s a tiny microlot-grade washed Pink Bourbon that we’ve been able to purchase exclusively in full.

We’ve featured many different coffees from Marco Fidel Rodriguez since 2015. In fact, he’s our favourite Colombian producer (he’s lovingly known within our team as MFR).

This season, we were able to buy exclusively a very small microlot-grade washed Pink Bourbon, which highlights the potential of the varietal to achieve complex and highly fruit-driven profiles. Nothing to envy from Geshas!

This year the harvest has been quite small, likely due to poor weather, so we’re very excited to bring you this coffee from Marco again. Long live MFR!

FINCA EL BALCON

Marco Fidel inherited Finca El Balcon from his father. The location of this 11-hectare patch of land is privileged: at 1780 metres above the sea level, it overlooks the Laboyos Valley on one side and lakes and waterfalls on the other.

Marco has been surrounded by coffee as far as he can remember: he is in his late 50s and has been producing specialty coffee for almost 20 years. Before this, he used to sell his crop wet or de-pulped—that is, unprocessed and before fermentation. After making the switch, he’s learned a lot about production, management and environmental and financial sustainability, creating a steady income for this family.

Marco Fidel works with his wife, Ruth, and his two sons. The family focuses on taking care of his coffee trees while he is in charge of managing the farm workers. The post-harvest process is carried out by the whole family.

Ruth also manages another undertaking, growing diverse plants and flowers for consumption and decoration. Their short-term plans are to renovate and improve their house, as well as to continue focusing on ways they can improve what they do on the farm.

MARCO AND PINK BOURBON

Marco first planted Pink Bourbon coffee trees eight years ago and planted a second lot of this variety around three years ago. It makes now around 20% of the crop, with the remainder being Caturra.

Pink Bourbon has great selling potential but it also has some challenges: more attention has to be paid during cherry picking to make sure they are at the right level of ripeness because the varietal can over-ripen very quickly and doesn’t last as long on the tree. Trees are more resilient to coffee leaf rust but also produce fewer cherries than other varieties.

HARVEST & PROCESS

The cherries grow under the shade of cachingo, guamo and cedro native trees, then picked at their ripest point.

The processing method is fully washed + fermented for 24 hours, then shade-dried in covered patios for 15-18 days and finally packed in Excelso EP Screen 15+ SCA Specialty Grade bags.

A LONG-TIME AFFAIR

We’ve been buying coffee from Marco for a while! Right now, a large part of his total crop comes to our roastery—big fans, as we said!

Here’s Reuben, Marco Fidel and his family back in 2015…

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Learn everything about this coffee:

Ethical, traceable sourcing

This page has all the sourcing information (variety, process, region, story, importer, and more) that our importers share with us, and give us permission to use.

The transparency helps us talk confidently about the quality and background of our product, and it helps you know exactly what you’re buying.

Learn more:
Coffee page transparency legend
Our coffee philosophy
Our business approach

Fresh harvest coffee

We only source and roast coffee from each country’s latest harvest season (so the green coffee is never older than 1 year from the time of picking, processing and packing). This ensures the sensory qualities are always at their peak and unaffected by excessive ageing.

Roasted for espresso and filter (best enjoyed black)

Roast style: omni. Omni roasts are designed to brew and taste great both as espresso and filter. Our omni single origins generally sit on Agtron values in the ~70-60 value range. So, technically, they are somewhere in the lighter side of the medium spectrum.

Designed for espresso and filter brewing. Best enjoyed black.

Learn more:
Our Loring Kestrel S35 roaster
Our roasting style and approach

Best brewed within days 15-49 post-roast

The ‘fresh is best’ saying doesn’t apply to coffee (contrary to popular belief). Waiting before opening and brewing your bag of whole coffee beans helps develop peak flavour and acidity.

But heads up: if you buy pre-ground coffee, brew it as soon as possible.

Learn more:
Our recommended brewing window

Try our custom brewing recipes

Our recipes and ratios are tailored to our coffee sourcing and roasting styles, bringing the best flavour and feel out of each coffee.

For pour over, immersion, and other filter brewing styles, check our brew guides.
For our espresso single origins, we recommend a coffee:yield ratio of 1:3:

Dose: 20g ground coffee
Yield: 60g espresso
Total brew time: ~24-28 seconds

This is just a starting point! We encourage you to experiment, taste, and adjust to find the recipe that you enjoy the most.

Learn more:
Our espresso brew guide (single origin)
Brewing ratio calculator

Packaging and sustainability

Bags: ABA-certified home compostable (AS 5810-2010)
Labels: recyclable
Valves (only on +250g bags): general waste
Box and tape (online orders): recyclable

Learn more:
Our packaging

Producer: Marco Fidel Rodriguez
Country: Colombia
Region: Filo De Chillurco, Huila
Altitude: 1850m above sea level
Variety: Pink Bourbon
Process: washed
Harvested: March 2024
Country grade: Excelso (Colombia)
Importer Grade: ML/X-Grade (Caravela)
Importer: Caravela
Body: Medium
Acidity: Medium
Tasting notes: Yellow peach, mango, jelly bean
Roast style: Omni (filter + espresso)

Variety

Pink Bourbon variety

Pink Bourbon is an Ethiopian Heirloom variety (or subvariety)—though, until very recently (~2023), it was thought to be a rare and spontaneous hybrid/mutation of Red and Yellow Bourbon.

The location

Coffee from Colombia

Colombia is one of the largest coffee producers in the world and benefits greatly from having one of the most unique and complex set of micro-climates of all coffee producing nations.

The Huila region of Colombia

This region boasts the perfect combination of high quality soil and geography and is quickly becoming one of the largest coffee producing regions in Colombia. One of the best regarded regions for high quality, fruit driven coffee.

Farm processes

Washed process

Machines are used to remove the flesh from the coffee cherry before being fermented in water, washed again, and finally sun dried. This process tends to result in more distinct, cleaner flavours.