What Is Pink Bourbon Coffee? A Rare Variety Worth Knowing
Pink Bourbon is one of the rarest coffee varieties in the world. Learn what makes it special — and why Finca Villa Betulia's microlot from Variety Coffee is worth seeking out.
If you've been exploring specialty coffee, you may have come across the name Pink Bourbon — and wondered what makes it so sought after. Here's what you need to know.
What is Pink Bourbon coffee?
Pink Bourbon is a rare natural hybrid of Red and Yellow Bourbon coffee varieties, named for the distinctive pink hue of its ripe cherries. It's primarily grown in the Huila region of Colombia, where altitude, climate, and the skill of individual farmers combine to produce some of the most complex cups in the world.
What makes Pink Bourbon especially prized — and rare — is its genetic instability. The pink color trait is easily overridden by pollen from surrounding plants, meaning farmers must carefully isolate these trees to preserve the variety's integrity. Very few producers manage to do this consistently.
What does Pink Bourbon taste like?
Pink Bourbon is known for its elegant, fruit-forward profile. Expect floral notes, bright winey acidity, and a sweetness that ranges from stone fruit to tropical. When processed using anaerobic natural methods — as with our current microlot — the flavors intensify: dried orange, sugarcane juice, blackberry, and a lingering floral finish.
Finca Villa Betulia, Huila, Colombia
Our Pink Bourbon comes from Finca Villa Betulia, a small family farm in Acevedo, Huila, run by Luis Anibal Calderon — a Huila Best Cup 2016 finalist. Luis harvests only fully ripe cherries, ferments them dry for 25 hours, then moves the coffee to a parabolic dryer for around 25 days. The result is a microlot with exceptional clarity and depth.
Grown at 1,550–1,600 metres above sea level, this lot reflects everything that makes Huila one of Colombia's most celebrated coffee regions: rich volcanic soils, dramatic altitude shifts, and farmers who treat coffee as a craft.
Why microlot?
Microlot coffees are produced in tiny quantities — often just a few hundred kilograms — from a single farm, a single harvest, and sometimes a single processing batch. That traceability is what separates them from commodity coffee. You know exactly where your cup came from, and who grew it.
Try it
Our Colombia Finca Villa Betulia – Pink Bourbon is available now as a limited 200g pre-order, roasted in small batches based on demand by Nano Kaffee Berlin. Shop the Pink Bourbon →