Jhonatan Gasca Bourbon Ají • Washed // Huila, Colombia

Jhonatan Gasca is a second-generation coffee producer from Pitalito.  With dreams of becoming a professional footballer, Jhonatan moved away to play for the professional team in Cali before coming back home to work at the family farm.  Alongside his brother Johan, and inspired by friends Nestor and Adrian Lasso, they began experimenting in 2008 on a plot gifted by their father, hoping to create coffee that would help refocus their family’s production on quality over quantity.

For this lot, ripe cherries are selected by hand and then undergo an initial oxidation process for 12 hours before being depulped and undergoing a submerged fermentation at 28°C for 48 hours, with mosto recirculation.  This ‘mosto’ acts as a nutrient-rich starter of the coffee cherries’ own juice — aiding in clarity, cleanliness, and saturation of flavor due to the natural enzymes and yeasts carried in the juice.  Once finished, the coffee is then sun dried under canopy for 10-12 days.

Borbon Aji, named due to its pepper-like shape, is a relatively newer variety circulating around Huila.  Its exact origin is unknown, but its heritage is most likely traced back to Ethiopian lineage, and not a direct descendant of the Bourbon variety as its name might suggest.

*Orders Roast Tuesday, ship Wednesday.  Order cutoff from same-week fulfillment is Monday at 11:59pm.