Colombia Franci Leonor Marín - Copa de Oro Grand Winner

Note: Orders will be fulfilled with our final batch, roasted on 6/26. We find a light roasted Pink Bourbon, especially on our Loring, actually benefits from some rest (2-8 weeks) before brewing.

Country: Colombia

Department: Huila

Town: San Agustín

Elevation: 1900 masl

Farm: Finca La Montañita

Variety: Pink Bourbon

Process: Washed

Tasting Notes: Peach Ring, Rhubarb Pie, Champagne 

Franci Leonor Marín Morales has been cultivating coffee for seven years. 

Last December, we had the honor of meeting Franci while judging in Copa de Oro 2024, a multi-regional competition for producers in central, southern, and western Huila. Out of over 60 top qualifying lots, Franci’s took first place not only in the southern division, but for the entire competition. With an average cup score of over 88, her winning washed Pink Bourbon boasts an intense mouthfeel and unreal sweetness.

The annual Copa de Oro competition is hosted by Osito Coffee, serving to shine a spotlight on the amazing producers and beautiful coffees in Huila. We’ve worked with Osito to source high quality coffee since our roastery was founded in 2017. While in Colombia, we visited their headquarters in Garzón.

The bulk of our Colombian coffee is processed at their impeccably run dry mill where they handle both export and import. Our largest volume investment in a single lot is with the La Muralla producer group in the municipality of Agustín in southern Hulia, where Franci also resides. 

Alongside her husband Gilberto Hoyos Chilito, Franci grows the Pink Bourbon variety on two hectares at her fincas La Montañita and Villa Sofia, located at 1900 m.a.s.l in the vereda of El Palmar. Besides coffee, Franci grows yucca and avocado. Both Franci and Gilberto come from coffee-growing families. They have four children, three daughters and one son. The couple carries out all required year round farm chores by themselves, and they hire three local pickers to help with the careful and tedious hand-selection of the cherry during the height of the harvest which occurs in the months of October into December, with a smaller fly crop or mitaca in May and June. The soil at the farms is mostly loam and they use chemical and organic fertilizer.

This is the second time her coffee has placed in the top 15 lots, meaning this is the second time she has placed in the top five of her division, placing first this year and winning the all around top prize in Copa de Oro 2024. Franci is the first woman to take the all around grand prize at Osito’s regional competition, now in it’s third year.

Her winning lot was floated right after coming in from the field so as to remove any underripe fruit and or debris. The cherry was then fermented intact for 12 hours, de-pulped, passed through a sieve called a zaranda to further remove unwanted beans, and fermented again in its mucilage, in a wooden tank, for 24 hours, rinsed then dried on raised beds within a parabolic solar dryer lined with poly shade mesh.  

Sourced in partnership with our good friends at Osito Coffee.