Colombia Paola Trujillo - Wush Wush

Look who’s back—it’s Paola Trujillo! Paola’s is a name we always welcome back to our menu with pride and excitement, and this latest harvest and release is certainly no exception to that. Being one of the producers we work with most closely in Colombia, you can expect to be seeing a plentiful selection of Paola’s best on our menu in the coming months, and we’re glad to initiate that selection with her wush wush and pink bourbon. When brewed up, the wush wush yields sugary sweet cotton candy, tropical, almost creamy ripe papaya, and lingering, delicate rooibos notes.

Paola’s family farm, Patio Bonito, located at 1.700 masl in the coastal region of Cauca, Colombia, has been in the Trujillo family for two generations. It was founded by her father, Carlos Trujillo, who has begin ceding increasing authority over the farm over to his daughters, Paola and Patricia, who have been learning the art of coffee cultivation garnered from Carlos’ 40+ years of experience as a coffee farmer and agroforestry engineer. Patio Bonito is comprised of 9 hectares, planted with over 45.000 coffee trees of varying varietals, such as castillo, typica, colombia, pink bourbon, sidra, wush wush, SL28, geisha, and aji.

Wush wush is a prime example of an Ethiopian landrace variety which has been isolated—in this case from coffee groves around the town of Wushwush, Ethiopia—and then cultivated in the Americas, with the majority to date being cultivated in Colombia. The town of Wushwush is located in Ethiopia’s South West People’s Region, in the Bench Maji zone, which is also where gesha is native to. Wush wush first arrived in South America about 30 years ago, and was likely first imported to Colombia for the purposes of research at Cenicafe—Colombia’s foremost institute of coffee research. This makes wush wush yet another example of an Ethiopian landrace variety that made its way to Colombia, just like chiroso, geisha, mejorada, papayo, pink bourbon, and aji. Like a classic, native Ethiopian landrace, it typically presents significant florals and fruits—especially stone and tropical fruit—in the cup.