Monday 11th December

 The morning was spent visiting a nearby coffee farm. Sadly, the owner of the farm had passed away four days before we arrived, and her poor dog was inconsolable. We learned about the processing of coffee and the many stages the beans go through before they become the product, we enjoy every morning.

Coffee production in Colombia has a reputation for producing mild, well-balanced coffee beans. Colombia's average annual coffee production of 11.5 million bags is the third total highest in the world, after Brazil and Vietnam, though highest in terms of the arabica bean. The beans are exported to United States, Germany, France, Japan, and Italy. Most coffee is grown in the Colombian coffee growing axis region, while other regions focus on quality instead of volumes, such as Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta. In 2007, the European Union granted Colombian coffee a protected designation of origin status. In 2011, UNESCO declared the "Coffee Cultural Landscape" of Colombia, a World Heritage site.

The coffee plant had spread to Colombia by 1790. The oldest written testimony of the presence of coffee in Colombia is attributed to a Jesuit priest, José Gumilla. In his book The Orinoco Illustrated (1730), he registered the presence of coffee in the mission of Saint Teresa of Tabajé, near where the Meta river empties into the Orinoco. Further testimony comes from the archbishop-viceroy Caballero y Gongora (1787) who registered the presence of the crop in the north east of the country near Giron (Santander) and Muzo (Boyaca) in a report that he provided to the Spanish authorities. The first coffee crops were planted in the eastern part of the country. In 1808 the first commercial production was registered with 100 green coffee bags (60 kg each) that were exported from the port of Cucuta, near the border with Venezuela.[13] A priest named Francisco Romero is attributed to have been very influential in the propagation of the crop in the northeast region of the country. After hearing the confession of the parishioners of the town of Salazar de la Palmas, he required as penance the cultivation of coffee. Coffee became established in the departments of Santander and North Santander, Cundinamarca, Antioquia, and the historic region of Caldas.

I am not able to recall the various processes which the beans have to go through before they can be sold to the public but there are cleaning, washing and drying processes and, of course the roasting. All the coffee produced in Colombia is of the arabica variety as other varieties do not grow well in the Colombian climate.

For those interested, this is a step-by-step description of the process.

Coffee from Bean to Cup

After a delicious lunch at the coffee farm which is also a small hotel with accommodation and a pool we drove to the airport at Pereira for the short flight to Medellin. The hotel at Medellin was connected to a shopping mall, and we walked there to have a fast-food dinner and early to bed.


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