Colombian coffee with pink cherries, named Bourbon by assumption. DNA tests point to an Ethiopian landrace unrelated to Bourbon.
Pink Bourbon is a Colombian coffee first noticed as a tree with pink cherries growing among Bourbon plants, and the trade assumed it was a Bourbon cross or mutation. DNA Analytica testing in 2017 found similarity to wild Ethiopian plants, and 2023 testing by RD2 Vision led Christophe Montagnon to call it an Ethiopian landrace with nothing to do with Bourbon. How it reached Colombia is unexplained. It is often described as a strong cup performer.
Field notes
- i
Two rounds of genetic testing, in 2017 and 2023, undercut the Bourbon in its name.
- ii
A farmer reported a tree laden with pink fruit among Bourbon plants in Colombia in November 2014, which is how it came to be called Pink Bourbon.