Variety: Pink Bourbon/Ají
Process: Washed
Sourced by: Shared Source
Ají (n.) - chili, red pepper.
I love veggies, but I fear them in coffee from a roasting perspective. I’ve seen the best roasters in the world go weak at the knees at public cuppings (no joke…) from the sheer utterance of the word “peppers” from an innocent new cupper (gosh, honestly that fear is so real haha).
When I learned that German Ortiz’s pink bourbon lot was also combined with a new variety I’ve never tried, ají, I immediately gulped for the fear of this coffee tasting like strawberries with hints of pickled jalapenos. The best thing to do, as always, was to cup the coffee blind against a table of heavy hitters. As you can safely assume based on reading this description, German Ortiz’s coffee soared and completely defied my veggie biases and expectations.
I’m fairly familiar with a wide variety of pink bourbon characteristics. Truthfully, there’s a particular fragrance that helps me spot them quickly on a blind table. As I quickly sniffed twenty lots, I was bamboozled – where was the familiar pink bourbon fragrance I had grown accustomed to? On the table, I was particularly mesmerized by one coffee. It immediately reminded me of my favorite reductive French red wines with jammy blackberries and fruits. As I started to taste it, hints of red started to flash from my memory bank, but it wasn’t specifically from red fruits. Simultaneously tropical with hints of fresh strawberry daiquiri, I came to realize it reminded me most of Fruit Punch Powerade. As the coffee cooled, I was getting a strawberry-pear combo resembling guava. This coffee was a standout. BOTZ’s flavor CPU burst into tropical flames.
I flipped over the blind card immediately for the cup, saw “German Ortiz pink bourbon/ají”, and immediately exclaimed – “Give me all the peppers!” Truthfully, this is my first time tasting the ají variety, but in combo with pink bourbon, it’s truly transformed the cup character beyond my expectations. Rich, tropical, and BIG, this coffee will provide you with a completely unique and saturated-tasting experience.
***Please note that coffee orders are roasted, processed, and shipped on Wednesdays. The cutoff for orders is 12:00 pm each Tuesday.***