Las Perlitas

In Spanish, Las Perlitas means “Little Pearls” and throughout the harvest, it’s quite common that small-holders in Colombia produce lots that aren’t large enough to be exported on their own. However, the quality is often just as good (or better) than samples received from larger lots. As such, our importing partner Coffee Quest buy all coffees, regardless of size and create a larger, export-size lot based on cup score and profile.

The result is Las Perlitas Huila; a celebrated Washed coffee of various small lots from producers in Huila, whose farms range in elevation from 1,600 to 2,000 m.a.s.l. and grow Pink Bourbon. In most versions, there is usually a mix of varieties, which include Caturra, Pink Bourbon and even sometimes Geisha. However, with the amount of Pink Bourbon being planted in Huila these days, these lots are often very heavily weighted with that variety!

From Coffee Quest:

"We needed a way to award this kind of commitment without punishing for the lack of volume, because that is not what specialty coffee is all about. It has definitely been a team effort with our buying stations across Huila, always hunting for these little pearls, but we are proud of the work we put in, and the producers that contribute to it."

In this iteration of Las Perlitas we are tasting ripe red fruits like raspberry and cherries, complimented by crisp red apple, some light herbaceous qualities and a lingering panela sugar finish.

Producer → Local Smallholders
Farm → Community Lot
Location → Huila, Colombia
Altitude → 1,600-2,000 masl
Varieties → Pink Bourbon & Caturra
Process → Washed