Shoebox Coffee Roasters - Marlon Bolaños Pink Bourbon Honey | Colombia

Colombia — Marlon Bolaños "The Three Coffee Farmers" Pink Bourbon (Double Fermentation Honey)

Tastes Like — 🍋 Yuzu • 🍯 Raw Honey • 🍊 Bergamot

DETAILS

• Producer: Marlon Bolaños (The Three Coffee Farmers)
• Region: Huila, Colombia
• Varietal: Pink Bourbon
• Process: Honey — 48h in-cherry barrel ferment, depulped, 48h bulk barrel ferment, 10–15 days raised-bed drying
• Harvest: Late harvest lot

INTRO From Marlon Bolaños's project "The Three Coffee Farmers" — some of the highest quality coming out of Huila. Intensely bright, sweet citric acidity like yuzu lemonade opens the cup, cooling to a rounded raw honey note, before an array of florals and delicate stonefruit rise as it fully cools — a nod to Pink Bourbon's Ethiopian heritage. In the cup: yuzu, raw honey, and bergamot.

THE PRODUCER Marlon Bolaños grew up in a coffee-producing family but didn't take a real interest until age 17, when he enrolled in a barista education course at SENA, learning brewing, green coffee grading, and sensory analysis. He returned and began planting differentiated varietals — pink bourbon, gesha, chiroso — while experimenting with new fermentation techniques each harvest. Today the farm is owned by Marlon and his two brothers, Pedro and Hemerson, with Marlon overseeing quality control, fermentation protocols, sampling, and logistics. He's also competed and won in several barista and brewing competitions, using spring water from the family farm — nicknamed "Champion's Water" by peers for its natural trace mineral composition, ideal for brewing.

THE PROCESS This late harvest Pink Bourbon underwent a double fermentation similar to Marlon's washed Gesha process: cherries were sealed in plastic barrels without water for 48 hours, then depulped and bulk-fermented in barrels for another 48 hours, before drying for 10-15 days on raised beds as a honey.

The double in-cherry-then-depulped barrel fermentation is the defining step — it's what builds the intense citric yuzu brightness up front, while allowing the raw honey and delicate floral-stonefruit complexity to emerge as the cup cools.

THE CUP Bright and evolving — intense citric acidity like yuzu lemonade up front, cooling into a rounded raw honey note, then opening into florals and delicate stonefruit — apricot, bergamot, and jasmine — settling into a juicy yet tea-like brew.

Flavour Notes 🍋 Yuzu 🍯 Raw Honey 🍊 Bergamot