Emerald Series: La Esperanza

In the mountains of San Adolfo, southern Huila, Susana Mences Obando and her husband, Edgar Motta, have spent nearly three decades shaping Finca Buena Vista into the farm it is today.

The land was once used for cattle grazing. Over time, the family gradually transformed it into coffee, planting with patience and building the farm through years of steady work rather than sudden change. Today, Buena Vista is home to both traditional and more distinctive varieties, including Pink Bourbon and Gesha, grown with an increasingly precise approach to quality.

Pink Bourbon became particularly important for the family. As the variety gained recognition within specialty coffee, it created new possibilities for reinvestment, stability, and growth. They named this lot La Esperanza “hope”  for the sense of possibility that followed.

Finca Buena Vista sits between 1,740 and 1,850 meters above sea level, in one of Colombia’s most celebrated coffee-producing regions. At these elevations, coffee develops slowly, giving the fruit more time to mature and allowing sweetness, acidity, and aromatic character to form with greater definition.

The family’s work has also received repeated recognition through Colombia’s Cup of Excellence since 2017, reflecting a long commitment to increasingly careful farming and selection.

For La Esperanza, harvesting begins with a strict selection of fully ripe cherries.

After picking, the fruit is density sorted to remove lower-density cherries before drying. The selected coffee is then laid on raised beds and dried naturally for 20 to 24 days, turned several times throughout each day to encourage even drying and maintain clarity in the final cup.

It is a patient process, built around control rather than intervention, allowing the character of the Pink Bourbon and the ripeness of the fruit to remain clearly present.

La Esperanza carries the expressive fruit character we look for in a natural Pink Bourbon, while remaining composed and clear.

Apricot brings a soft stone-fruit sweetness, followed by the deep, familiar character of panela. A bright raspberry note gives the cup its lift and definition, creating a profile that feels juicy, structured, and distinctly Huila.