Reserve Series 03: Alexander Vargas
Regular price $30.00Extended Fermentation Washed Pink Bourbon from our favorite producer.
Every time we offer coffee from Alexander Vargas it sells out at lightning speed.
One of our goals at Black Fox is to gain access to small, unique lots for our Reserve Series in a way that is beneficial for the producer long term. We've discovered that one approach to this is to purchase consistently year after year with the hope that we can build enough trust to be offered the more experimental things and that these producers will think of us when trying something new.
We've been buying from Alexander Vargas since 2020. The very first single lot coffee we roasted at Black Fox was his washed Caturra (we're still daydreaming about that coffee...) and since then we have bought his Pink Bourbon every year. This time, Alexander has sent us an extended fermentation lot to enjoy.
Alexander has been producing coffee for over 25 years. In that time he has grown from a young producer working on the family farm to the owner of his own farm; La Piragua. Finca La Piragua isn’t huge relative to what we know in other parts of the world but standing on the hills of his 5-hectare farm, surrounded by rows of Pitahaya (a native Yellow Dragon Fruit) and endless banks of coffee, you quickly begin to feel like it goes on forever.
Alexander ferments his coffee in large plastic barrels, sealed but exposed to the native yeasts that are unique to his farm. He can generally ferment quickly before getting his parchment washed and onto his raised drying beds but this particular lot was given more time to see what might happen. Thankfully for us, it worked out very, very well.
We are tasting tropical fruit but soft and textural like mango. It has the classic Pink Bourbon balance of acidity and sweetness with punchy raspberry and lingering red fruits. Finally, we are getting lilac florals, peach, and soft caramel as it cools. Worth every minute you spend with it.
Producer → Alexander Vargas Osorio
Farm → La Piragua
Location → Palestina, Huila, Colombia
Altitude → 1,820 masl
Varieties → Pink Bourbon
Process → Extended Fermentation Washed