Colombia Don Lisandro

A coffee-producer's son, Lisandro has been around coffee his whole life and said he "inherited" being a producer from his father. He took courses at the National Learning Service (SENA) in coffee production, and started his own farm almost a decade ago. In additional to Caturra, Don Lisandro grows Gesha and Pink Bourbon varieties.

Don Lisandro has a 5-hectare farm that's planted with coffee on 4.5 hectares, in the combination of volcanic/sandy loam soil common to the area. Only the bright red cherry gets harvested, and is depulped in the afternoon before being sorted in a zaranda, a kind of mesh screen that removes impurities from the coffee. The coffee is then fermented in open tanks for 18–26 hours and washed three times before being laid in parabolic driers for 12–20 days depending on the weather.

Pink Bourbon: Cultivated from hybridization of Red and Yellow Bourbon. It's very rare, but the producers say it is quite resistant to rust. Pink and Orange Bourbons are very difficult to produce with consistency. The recessive genes leading to the expression of these colors are easily thwarted by the presence of yellow and red genes in a given pollen grain. A carefully isolated and contained lot can do quite well and preserve the unique color and character of this variety, though this is quite hard to find.