Luz Helena Salazar Pink Bourbon
Sweet, bright and clean, with notes of caramel, tangerine, cacao nibs and more. It's complex but because of the caramel and cacao notes it's also an easy-drinking coffee of the type I like to start my day with.
Origin: Colombia, Quindio, Armenia
Farm: La Leona
Farmer: Luz Helena Salazar
Variety: pink bourbon
Process: washed
Notes: caramel, tangerine, strawberry, cacoa nibs
Cupping score: 88.75
Brewing: roasted primarily for filter coffee, but can also definitely be brewed as espresso. It wouldn't be my first choice for milk drinks.
The coffee has good body for a light roast and can work well as pour over in a drip machine or brewed in the aeropress/french press for a more blended flavour profile and heavier body. I've been brewing this in my café and it's been very well recieved. I'm so happy to have a good amount of this coffee and it is a worthy replacement for the Jairo Arcila pink bourbon. Fun fact - which I hadn't realized when I was cupping and choosing the coffees to feature but I subsequently found out - is that Luz Helena is Jairo Arcila's wife and mother to Carlos and Felipe Arcila who are also amazing coffee producers!
Luz Helena grew up in Armenia (Colombia) and has been producing coffee for the last 20 years. She owns Maracay, an 8-hectare farm located at 1450 m.a.s.l, in Armenia Quindio. Luz is Carlos and Felipe’s mother, and wife of Jairo Arcila.
Luz’s passion for coffee was inspired by her husband’s work on coffee farms and as a dry mill manager. Luz would hear Jairo talking about coffee and wanted to be more involved in the industry. With the support of Jairo, Luz started learning how to care for coffee plants and what steps she needed to take to produce high-quality, ripe cherries. Luz found dealing with insects very challenging at the start and would draw on Jairo’s knowledge to help with this.
For several years now, her focus has been on producing Specialty Coffee. With the support of Cofinet, Luz has been able to improve farm practices and focus on producing the best cherries she can. Once ripe, the cherries are then processed by Cofinet at our processing station, La Pradera.
When Luz is not tending to her coffee trees, she enjoys spending time with her friends and being part of local support groups for vulnerable people.