Narino Auction 1st Place Yeison Burbano

Zest couldn't be prouder to finally release Lot 1 of the Narino Auction 2025!

Held in October 2025, the Narino Auction was the second event organised by the team at Forest Coffee to replace the Colombia COE Auction. Last year, we shared Lot 1 from Auction For Peace, the first event from the Forest Coffee team!

Again, in 2025, our Head of Coffee, Aryan Aqajani was invited alongside roasters from across the globe to cup and evaluate 30 microlot coffees in search of the number one coffee from Narino.

Excited to share #1 with our coffeekind community, won by Yieson Burbano of Finca Costa Rica! His delisious coffee is a delightful washed Geisha grown at 1930 MASL.

Yeison hand picks his Geisha cherries at peak ripeness, before placing in plastic tanks for 48 hours in full cherry, like a natural anaerobic fermentation. The cherry is then depulped and fermented for a futher 72 hours, like a washed anaerobic fermentation.

The coffee is then washed clean and dried as a washed on raised beds for 3-4 weeks in parabolic dryers (a solar device that used curved-shaped reflectors to concentrate sunlight and generate higher tempretures) before being stabilized in GrainPro.

This win caps off eight years in coffee for Yeison who was originally brought into the coffee industry through his wifes family. His uncle, an experienced Geisha grower, guided him and now he is on top of Colombia!