EDIL QUINAYAS Filter, Colombia

Tastes like wild berries, wild herbs and grapefruit.
Very complex, with a juicy body and sparkling acidity.

Species: Arabica
Varietal: Pink Bourbon
Process: Washed
Region: San Agustín, Huila, Colombia
Altitude: 1.750 m.a.s.l.

Almost unaware of its outstanding quality, Don Edil Quinayas grew this Pink Bourbon coffee on his 2 hectare farm in the Huila region. Our partner importer Semilla Coffee brought it to Europe and we were absolutely blown away. It quickly became one of the favourite coffees we have ever roasted.

Don Edil has been connected to coffee since his childhood. He worked as a picker at different farms while also working on his grandfather's low altitude small farm. From those early days he dreamed of having his own coffee farm.

He and other members of a collective of indigenous people from the Cauca region worked for 25 years to achieve the recognition of more than 60 Jatun Wataka-yo families, who then succeeded in achieving a reservation, granted to them by the Huila government within San Agustín. Upon receiving the first parcels of land, he began to grow his own Caturra trees.

Later, in 2014, he was able to receive a third parcel of 2 hectares located at 1.930 m.a.s.l. In 2016, he came across the Pink Bourbon variety and its reputation for producing high quality and high volume at altitude. He and his wife Carmenza Urbano, together with their children, planted 5.000 Pink Bourbon trees that year on land previously used only for cattle. The first few years of trying to grow the plants were challenging, as the family had little money to invest in fertiliser or labour. There were many times when Don Edil considered abandoning the farm, but the desire to be a coffee grower kept him going until the crop began producing in 2019.

From 2019 to 2022, Edil will only sell its coffee on the local market, in a category known as "en verde", which means that the coffee is only collected, depulped and then delivered to the local square to be sold to middlemen for cash. This type of sale earns a grower at best 50% of the current market price, and often less. In mid-2022, Alberto Gaviria, a family friend who lives near San Agustín, started helping Edil dry his parchment in his solar dryer. It is an ongoing journey, but Edil is now recognised as one of the best coffee producers in the region.