The Variety

Finca Juan Martín

Juan Martín is an experimental farm owned and operated by the Ruiz family's company Banexport, a leading exporter of Colombian specialty coffee that has been helping us source extraordinary coffee since 2010. Since 2016, our work with Banexport has focused on the Sotará region of Cauca where Finca Juan Martín is located. The farm is an innovation center for experiments with agronomic, harvesting, and processing practices all in the pursuit of maximizing quality.

Bourbon First

We know that the choices that a farmer makes in selecting varieties has a huge impact on what we taste in the cup. Genetics is one of the big 3 for cup quality (Genetics, Environment, Management).

So what do we know about this variety? First, we know a great deal about the Bourbon variety. World Coffee Research, an organization that Intelli supports, is one of the authoritative scientific organizations on coffee varieties and says this about the Bourbon variety:

"One of the most culturally and genetically important C. arabica varieties in the world, known for excellent quality in the cup at the highest altitudes. . . . French missionaries introduced Bourbon from Yemen to Bourbon Island (now La Réunion)—giving it the name it has today—in the early 1700s. Until the mid-19th century, Bourbon did not leave the island. But beginning in the mid-1800s, the variety spread to new parts of the world as the missionaries moved to establish footholds in Africa and the Americas."

Bourbon has fallen out of favor with farmers because it is susceptible to diseases like leaf rust, coffee berry, and nematodes. But the farmers who plant this variety at high elevations and effectively manage diseases are rewarded with a stunning cup quality like this lot that we selected.

Why Striped?

There isn't a lot of scientific information about "Striped Bourbon" (which frankly isn't unusual and underscores the importance of organizations like WCR). Farmers in the region noticed that the red cherries on certain trees had visible orange stripes along the side. They began segregating those cherries from other typical Red Bourbon trees and tasted them to see if there was a difference. The answer was yes!

Farmers have begun planting fields of the Striped Bourbon trees just like our partners at Finca Juan Martín did.

Look for

Blackberry | Plum | Navel Orange

This Coffee is Direct Trade and in Season.

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