Colombia Las Brisas Brayan Smith Chili Bourbon Washed

Tasting Note:  White Floral | Papaya | Pomelo | Sweet Finish

 Size:  200g/1kg

Brewing Recommendation: Filter Brews / Modern Espresso 

A washed Chili Bourbon grown by Brayan Smith at Las Brisas in Huila, Colombia, grown between 1,500 and 1,800 metres. Chili Bourbon is a variety whose name says Bourbon while its genetics say newly discovered Ethiopian landrace.

The name that didn't survive testing

Well, Chili Bourbon is not a Bourbon. When a Huila lot entered simply as “Ají” placed 6th at the 2021 Colombia Cup of Excellence, the Alliance for Coffee Excellence commissioned RD2 Vision to test the variety and published the finding: not a Bourbon, but a newly discovered Ethiopian landrace not found in many accessions, including CATIE's collection. Accessions are the catalogued reference collections where the coffee world keeps plant material on file, so that sentence is a polite way of saying nobody had this one filed anywhere.

The name came from a smell, not a lab. José Herman Salazar, the Huila producer who found the tree, caught a warm, peppery character coming off the fruit as it broke from the branch at harvest, assumed a Bourbon mutation, and called it Bourbon Ají. “Ají” is the South American word for chili. You will also see it written as Chilli Bourbon, Ají Bourbon or plain Ají, all the same plant. One thing we will not blur: that competition placing belongs to Salazar's Finca La Guaca, a different producer on a different farm, and never to this lot.

Who grows it

Brayan Smith is a third-generation grower who owns the farm, leads a local coffee association, and passes tools and knowledge along to the smallholder families farming around him. Las Brisas is not a one-variety place: Pink Bourbon, Geisha, Sidra, Castillo, Caturra and Chili Bourbon all grow there, and the lot reaches us through Cofinet, the Colombian exporter that represents him. Worth stating plainly, since roaster copy muddles it often: Las Brisas grows this variety, but it is not where the variety was found.

In the cup

The house notes are papaya, cardamom and panela: soft tropical fruit first, a dry spice note sitting just behind it, and panela, unrefined cane sugar, holding the base through the finish. 

Order a bag online and give it a slow, careful pour. This is coffee with character, and it earns a discerning cup.