In Colombia, coffee is simultaneously a national treasure and a lifestyle. For centuries, the local landscape has been transformed for the needs of coffee farmers and one of Colombia's main coffee-producing regions is even on UNESCO's cultural heritage list.
Our coffee's journey to Votice
Colombia's coffee-growing territory is subdivided into many regions.
Colombia is famed for its full-bodied and rich coffees with prominent hints of chocolate, exceptional aroma, and excellent acidity. Colombia’s coffee-growing territory is subdivided into many regions. The flavour of the coffee can thus differ slightly depending on the area where it was grown. Its flavours include tropical fruit, vanilla, caramel, and chocolate notes, which are the hallmarks of Colombian coffee. As one goes further north, the intensity of the coffee increases.
The average person probably knows that two species of coffee exist: Robusta and Arabica. Each species has its own specific characteristics and one can't really say that one is better than the other. Arabica generally grows at higher altitudes. Its taste is more acidic, sweeter, with frequent fruity notes. In contrast, Robusta is grown at lower altitudes, is more bitter, earthy, woody, and contains significantly more caffeine than Arabica.
Arabica takes from six to eight months to ripen. Robusta needs a little more time, about nine to eleven months, and harvest time depends on geographical location. While they ripen, the berries gradually change colour from green to yellow, red, and finally carmine.
It takes four hears before the first coffee cherries can be harvested from a coffee tree. This is done either manually or using a machine. The manual method damages the bushes much less, with pickers carefully harvesting only ripe and healthy cherries. Harvesting machines will pick all cherries, including unripe ones, and can even damage the plant.
Two processing methods exist - dry and wet. When using the wet method, the peel and fruit pulp surrounding the coffee bean are first removed. The beans are then placed in a fermentation tank where pulp remnants are removed from the beans, which are then dried in the sun. In the dry method, whole coffee cherries are first dried in the sun, while being turned regularly, and only then are the skin and fruit flesh removed from the bean.
When the green coffee beans are dry, farmers put then into traditional jute bags and shipped throughout the whole world. On their journey, they often travel thousands of kilometres by ship, rail, truck, or plane.
