Columbian Coffee
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Colombian Coffee
Colombian Coffee
Columbian coffee is grown at high altitudes and tended with painstaking care in the shade of banana and rubber trees or in a nursery, where selected beans are planted. The beans are sown close together and covered with rich soil. Eight weeks later the seeds germinate and roots develop. The healthiest plants are selected and transplanted in a nursery and nurtured for six months. When the seedlings grow to about two foot they are transplanted to the plantation where they are cultivated. It takes an average coffee tree approximately three to four years to blossum and grow to full size . The first fruit appears about six months later. Coffee trees are unique; they bear ripened fruits and flowers at the same time.
Each coffee tree produces one pound (455 grams) of coffee annually.When the coffee beans are a rich, red color, they are ready for harvesting. Only then are the berries picked individually. After the farmer picks all the coffee berries from the tree, they are put into bags and loaded on mules or donkeys. They then go on to the only mechanical means of help for the farmer, the de-pulping machine.
This machine removes the pulp off of the two seeds that are in the center of each berry. The two beans found in the berry are flat on one side and rounded on the other. The pulp, or the red covering that you see, goes back to the soil as fertilizer for new plants and seeds while the beans, still encased in a tough parchment husk, go to large concrete tanks. Here they soak in water for 24 hours. The soaking starts a slight fermentation which creates the aroma of coffee.
The beans are then washed in long concrete troughs. Unlike beans from other origins, all Colombian Coffee is "washed" coffee, which results in a rich taste and aroma. When the washing is over the beans are dried. They are scooped up and put into large straw baskets. They are then spread out on great open-air terraces, where they are turned again and again until the wind and sun have dried them completely.
Coffea Arabica
This coffee is among the best in the world, rich, full-bodied, and perfectly balanced. Coffea Arabica prefers higher altitudes and drier climates than its cousin, the lower quality Robusta bean. Therefore, the arid mountains and the well-drained, rich volcanic soil of Colombia provide ideal conditions for growing coffee of high quality
Colombian Coffees are grown in two main regions, the central region around Medellin, Armenia and Manizales, known as MAM to aficionados, and the eastern, more mountainous region near Bogotá and Bucaramanga. MAM varieties are known for their heavy body, rich flavor and fine, balanced acidity while the mountain grown eastern beans produce an even richer, heavier, less acidic coffee. The finest Colombian coffee comes from this region.
Columbian coffee history
By 1875 170,000 bags were leaving the country bound for the U.S. and Europe. The exports grew exponentially over the next hundred years or so and peaked in 1992 at around 17 million bags. Today, Colombian coffee exports are around 10 million bags per year.
For many decades Colombia was the world’s second leading producer of coffee behind Brazil. Recently, Vietnam surpassed Colombia in coffee exports to take the number two seat and move Colombia into a close third. However, the old adage of quality over quantity certainly applies here.
The Arabica bean does not grow well in Vietnam. Only the hearty, yet inferior, Robusta is suited for the low, wet climate of Vietnam. Colombian Coffees are far superior and is considered by many coffee experts to be the finest in the world.