Colombia El Meson Pink Bourbon Washed

The Producers

Originally from Acevedo, Pillo grew up on another one of his family’s coffee farms, learning everything he could from Don Ángel. Sandy is originally neighboring Pitalito. The couple moved onto the property where they now live and work a little over three years ago. They built a house and began working the land, planting 20,000 Pink Bourbon trees on pasture that had never been cultivated before, since El Meson used to be a cattle farm. Today, they grow the Pink Bourbon variety on eleven of El Meson’s 34 hectares. The original planting is producing well, and this microlot comes from those inaugural trees. Two years ago, they planted another 26,000 trees which will produce their first harvest this year. Besides coffee, Pillo and Sandy grow plantains, yucca and sugarcane, all of which they use to feed their workers and themselves. They also keep four cows for milk. They have two young daughters—Laura Camila is nine and Salomé is three—and they are expecting their third child, a boy they will name Ángel Martin, after his grandfather.

El Meson’s soil is mostly loam, with a few pockets of sand. There is an area of protected forest reserve on the property, as well as a waterfall. The coffee plantation starts at 1,650 m.a.s.l and ascends to approximately 1,700 m.a.s.l. The landscape is mostly hilly and steep, with parcels of flatter land. The family employs five workers to carry out non-harvest chores such as weeding and fertilizing, the latter of which they do three times a year with both chemical and organic fertilizers. During the harvest season they employ up to 15 pickers from the departments of Cauca and Tolima, as well as a few locals, to carry out the careful, hand-selection of the Pink Bourbon cherry. The itinerant pickers live at the finca during the harvest months.

Pillo, who is 36 years-old, and speaks with a kind, and very Huilense tone of voice, explained that it is very important to him and Sandy that their workers are paid well and feel comfortable during their time living on the farm. They pay the pickers per kilo harvested and they pay the off-season workers a daily wage. After the cherry comes in from the fields, Pillo carries out the post-collection processing, or beneficio, himself.