This year we are diversifying our offering by exploring unique, exotic, and super rare
varieties. With this in mind, we bring you Bourbon Rey!
This coffee comes by way of José Padilla in Guatemala and his partnership with Gonzalo
Hernández at the Coffea Diversa project in Costa Rica. Gonzalo himself has amassed possibly
the largest private collection of botanical coffee varieties on the planet, all with full genetic traceability. After years of collecting and transporting samples from across the world,
Gonzalo began a new project by seeding these rare and unique varieties and sharing them
with his friends: one of those friends was José Padilla.
The variety itself is a natural mutation of Bourbon that began in Jamaica. The coffee is
characterized by extremely large seeds, even bigger than what you could expect from
Maragogype. The plant itself is tall in stature, has lengthy space between the branch nodes,
large leaves, is low-yielding and the adolescent plants have bronze tipping in the leaves.
Bourbon Rey is certainly an exciting variety and we think that José’s processing has
enhanced the cup beautifully. Expect notes of blackberry, stewed pear, and Pedro Ximénez
sherry.
Fun fact: We were introduced to José by a good friend of ours, Felipe Contreras!