La Leona

Luz Helena Salazar — Pink Bourbon Washed
La Leona Farm, Armenia, Quindío, Colombia — Washed Process

Some coffees come with a name worth knowing. This one comes with two.

Luz Helena Salazar has been farming the volcanic soils of Armenia, Quindío for over twenty years — building her craft quietly, improving her practices season by season, and raising two sons who went on to found Cofinet, the export company that brought this coffee to us. The La Leona farm is the result of that work: meticulous, specific, and built on a standard that doesn't cut corners.

The coffee itself is Pink Bourbon — a variety that sounds like it belongs on a cocktail menu but has roots far older than its name suggests. Recent genetic testing identified it as an Ethiopian landrace, which explains something about the cup: there's a brightness to it, a clarity, that reads more like East Africa than South America. Key lime and raspberry up front, caramel underneath to hold it all together. It's a light roast, and it shows — clean, layered, and worth slowing down for.

The process is careful by design. Cherries are harvested following strict ripeness criteria, floated and hand-sorted to remove any defects, then exposed to 30 hours of underwater fermentation before being pulped. The parchment is gently washed and dried under temperature-controlled conditions until ideal moisture is reached. Nothing rushed. Nothing left to chance.

This is the kind of coffee that rewards attention. Luz Helena spent twenty years earning the right to grow it that way.