Colombia Estrellas de Aji - Nano-lot Varietal Blend (Fresh Harvest)

COLOMBIA

ESTRELLAS DJ AJÍ - Regional Varietal Nano-lot Super Blend 

FLORAL BERRIES, LILAC, TAMARIND, EFFERVESCENT 

An exceptionally expressive coffee with vibrant fruit and florals.  We're loving that this one is back as Bourbon Aji continues its rise to fame. A sexy downright sexy profile.

Estrellas de Ají, or Stars of Ají, is a special community lot from our friends at Shared Source, built around tiny harvests of one of Colombia's most exciting emerging varieties.

This particular release brings together coffees from two producers in Huila: Ildefonso Córdoba and Luis Octavio Titimbo.

 Clean red berries with florals of lilac and orange blossom and sweet spice accents and tamarind with a heavy body.

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BEAN DETAILS:

ORIGIN: Huila, Colombia
PRODUCER: Five smallholder producers
ELEVATION: 1600-2100 masl
VARIETY: Bourbon Ají (Ethiopian landrace lineage)
PROCESS: Anaerobic Fermentation Washed
TASTING NOTES:  floral berries, tamarind, lilac, sweet spice
ROAST TYPE: Light

Farm Level

LAS ESTRELLAS DE AJÍ

Community Bourbon Ají Lot — Huila, Colombia

Lot Name: Las Estrellas de Ají
Region: Huila, Colombia
Variety: Bourbon Ají (Ethiopian landrace lineage)
Producers: Five smallholder producers
Process: Anaerobic Fermentation Washed
Drying: 2.5–3 weeks slow drying

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About Estrellas de Ají

Estrellas de Ají, or Stars of Ají, is a special community lot from our friends at Shared Source, built around tiny harvests of one of Colombia's most exciting emerging varieties.

This particular release brings together coffees from two producers in Huila: Ildefonso Córdoba and Luis Octavio Titimbo.

The idea is pretty simple.

Some of the most exciting coffees produced by small farmers come in quantities that are almost impossible to export individually. We're talking 50 or 100 kilograms at a time.

Cleaning dry-milling equipment between such small lots can be prohibitively expensive, and international shipping creates additional challenges.

Rather than passing on these exceptional coffees, Shared Source created Estrellas de Ají to bring them together into a carefully selected nano-lot blend.

We love this approach. It gives small producers a meaningful market for their most interesting coffees while allowing us to share something that might otherwise never make it out of Colombia.

The Variety — Bourbon Ají

Bourbon Ají has become one of the most talked-about varieties in Huila, particularly around Bruselas, where many of the contributing producers are based.

Its name comes from the cherries themselves, which grow long and narrow, resembling little chili peppers. Ají is Spanish for chili.

Interestingly, despite its name, genetic testing has indicated that Bourbon Ají isn't actually a Bourbon at all. Its lineage traces back to an Ethiopian landrace.

The variety has attracted attention for its distinctive cup quality and apparent resistance to certain fungal diseases, including coffee leaf rust.

For us, the appeal is in the cup: vibrant fruit, delicate florals, and a really distinctive acidity.

Estrellas de Ají captures all of that beautifully.

The Producers

Ildefonso Córdoba has played an important role in spreading Bourbon Ají throughout his community. Many producers growing the variety today obtained their seeds through him.

For this release, his coffee is paired with a small lot from Luis Octavio Titimbo, another producer working with this unusual variety.

Both producers use carefully managed fermentation techniques, adjusting their approaches based on cherry ripeness and weather conditions.

The result is a blend that brings together two distinct interpretations of Bourbon Ají while preserving the variety's remarkable character.

The Process

Although both coffees are fully washed, their processing methods involve extended fermentation.

Ildefonso Córdoba

Ildefonso begins by fermenting whole cherries in sealed plastic barrels fitted with valves for approximately 40–70 hours.

After depulping, he adds the juice collected during the initial cherry fermentation back into the coffee.

The depulped coffee then undergoes approximately 70 additional hours of fermentation in sealed containers with residual mucilage and a small amount of water.

It's then washed, sorted to remove floating or empty seeds, and dried beneath a polycarbonate roof.

Luis Octavio Titimbo

Luis takes a slightly different approach.

He allows freshly harvested cherries to rest overnight in their picking bags before depulping.

The coffee then ferments with its mucilage in sealed plastic barrels for 36–42 hours, followed by washing and drying.

Together, these two lots create a coffee with remarkable fruit intensity, floral complexity, and clarity.

A Better Way to Buy Tiny Lots

One of the things we appreciate about Shared Source is its commitment to purchasing coffee directly from producers.

For this release, the parchment coffees were purchased at 5,200,000 Colombian pesos per carga (125 kilograms), with payment transferred directly to the producers' bank accounts.

Shared Source also covers transportation from Bruselas to the dry mill.

Programs like this make it possible to purchase exceptional coffees in very small quantities while maintaining meaningful relationships with the people growing them.

And when the coffee tastes this good, it's a pretty easy project to get behind.