Elder Castro - Copa de Oro Finalist, Washed Pink Bourbon - Huila, Colombia

*Copa de Oro 2025, 4th Place*

Producer: Elder Castro Garcia
Location: El Cerrito, La Plata, Huila
Variety: Pink Bourbon 
Process: Washed
Harvest: 2025
Importer: Osito Coffee
Elevation: 1850m
Category: Rare

Contract Price: $18.95 per pound

Copa de Oro:Copa de Oro is an annual regional coffee competition in Colombia organized by Osito Coffee, which highlights the top producers in Huila and Cauca regions. It focuses on rewarding high-quality, high-altitude washed Gesha and Pink Bourbon with substantial premiums paid to producers. The competition is held every November and features multiple rounds of cupping. After tasting all of the finalists, we decided to purchase the 4th place winner, a washed Pink Bourbon lot by Elder Castro Garcia. We were swayed by the intense tart grapefruit characteristics it develops as it cools. This is the single most expensive coffee we've ever roasted, and we hope you enjoy it as much as we do. 

Washed Coffee: The washed process is the standard, method of perparing coffee before roasting. It results in high-clarity, delicate flavors. The process begins with mechanically depulping the coffee cherry, followed by repeated washing with clean water to ensure the complete removal of the fruit mucilage. The coffee is then fermented for a short period of time to remove the parchment layer, and then dried in the a single layer either in the sun or in shade for several days.

Colombian Coffee: Colombian coffee producers are incredibly innovative. In response to decades devastating coffee rust disease, they developed high quality disesase resistant varietals like Colombia and Castillo. As the specialty coffee industry has evolved, they've been at the forefront inventing delicious new techniques for fermenting coffee, vastly expanding the range of flavors possible in the cup. Coffee from Colombia can't be easily generalized, but it's particularly famous for malic acidity (think apple & pear), big sweetness,  and delicate florals on the aroma.