INSTANT COFFEE - PINK BOURBON WASHED

Doña Raquel is the second generation in her family to work in coffee. Her father was one of the first coffee growers in the municipality.

In Colombia, extreme weather conditions can be a significant challenge—there may be too much rain or intense heat. During the last harvest, the El Niño phenomenon occurred, bringing intense heat. Interestingly, this phenomenon helped improve the quantity of coffee that could be collected.

She grows her coffee with great love, always thinking about the consumer. Her greatest wish is for that person to enjoy something truly delicious, as that is what she is most passionate about. She and her family put their heart and soul, patience, and dedication into their work, while implementing good practices to ensure the quality of their coffee. Additionally, Doña Raquel supports sustainable practices to minimize environmental impact and contribute positively to her community.

In the morning, Doña Raquel takes care of her pets, including guinea pigs and chickens. Then, she heads to the warehouse, which serves as her office, to handle paperwork, while her husband takes care of the farm’s tasks. In the afternoons, she returns to the farm to oversee the cultivation, ensuring that everything is done correctly in the processes. She emphasizes that the harvesters on the farm are a group of women she works closely with, who are essential to her operation because they know how to pick only the right cherries. At the end of the day, when she gets home, she and her husband monitor the entire coffee process to make the most of it and minimize waste.

Personally, for Doña Raquel, community comes first. She is deeply committed to ensuring that other coffee growers have the same opportunities to advance with their coffee and improve every day. She wants people to recognize the hard work that so many put into coffee and find ways to contribute to that effort. It’s not just about financial support but also about sharing knowledge and providing training to grow together.

She carries her passion for coffee in her blood; for Doña Raquel, it’s a family legacy. Having the opportunity to transform the lives of many people through coffee, while also protecting the environment and the place where everyone lives, is essential to her. This has become her greatest motivation to continue working each day with dedication and purpose.

Absolutely! That’s exactly what she hopes for—for customers to feel inspired to visit her, meet her family, the community, and the farm. It would make her incredibly happy to welcome them and share her world with them.

This Pink Bourbon from La Bohemia farm is an award-winning coffee meticulously produced by Raquel Lasso. Secured through an auction and processed with a 96-hour sensory-driven fermentation, it develops a clean, wine-like complexity. Expect vibrant notes of lemon, grapefruit, brown sugar, and tea-like qualities, balanced with bright acidity and delicate sweetness. Carefully washed, sun-dried for 15–17 days, and stabilized for 25 days, this coffee shines best at 56 days from roast.

Many know that instant coffee is commonly made using two methods: spray drying and freeze drying. There is a third method, but unfortunately, very few companies can afford the high cost overhead. However, one day, we have our eyes set on it. 

For now, we choose freeze drying, which involves sublimation, vacuum, heat, and time. Firstly, no other company brews concentrate like we do. By using a cold chain technique throughout the entire process—from grinding and brewing to storage—we keep everything cold and freeze our trays as quickly as possible before the freeze drying process begins. The biggest enemy of instant coffee is the loss of volatiles, so we make sure to grind and brew cold to capture all the sweetness and acidity. We also incorporate extra preparation steps to ensure our outcome is 100% repeatable, achieving 25%-28% extractions using less physical coffee weight than any other competitors. We meticulously dial in our freeze drying batches for specific lots, ensuring we are not adding unwanted heat and maintaining maximum efficiency without loss of time. Think of instant coffee like roasting—every variable matters. 

Next up is our post-process. As you can see, we believe that having a thoughtfully designed product matters. That’s why our instant coffee looks like dust. Most companies simply scrape up the product and call it a day, but by making our particles smaller, we enhance the experience by keeping every packet consistent. Many aspects go into our instant coffee that most would overlook when producing. 

Our Instant coffee has held up to 4 years with no issues and continues to be fine though we do notice a slight flatness in the body and a little less sweetness but still safe to use.

We enjoy this with 226g to 284g ( 8-10 oz ) of hot water or cold water. If you want to use it as a espresso do about 2oz of hot or cold water and about 6-8oz of your choice of dairy or non-dairy.