La Soledad is the farm of Mario Gomez in Pitalito, Huila He produces coffee of various processing methods and varieties and is able to separate microlots based on the varieties he grows via selective picking.

This coffee is of the variety known as Bourbon Aji, which continues a trend in Colombia of new varietals being named "bourbon" which has nothing to do with the Bourbon variety. Let me explain. Similarly to Pink Bourbon, Papayo, Bourbon Sidra and Tabi, Bourbon Aji is actually more closely related to Ethiopian landraces, or Heirloom (basically a catch-all term for wild coffee varietals.) The use of the term bourbon is probably related to the fact that the Bourbon variety is very popular and closely tied to coffee from Colombia. In other words, it's just for good PR.

That being said, the Aji varietal is incredibly tasty. Similar to the gesha-variety (also natively from Ethiopia) it has lots of citrus fruit aroma, florals and complex flavours. This is a washed lot which lets us experience the Aji-varietal without any interference from processing.

Mario does a very good job at La Soledad and is a great curator of various coffee varietals. His family also owns their own exporting company, Kawa, which was founded in 2014, allowing them to benefit from selling their coffee directly to importers like Nordic Approach in Norway.

Blood orange, red apple, shortbread.