Colombian Medellin Coffee Beans: Flavor Characteristics, Name Origin, Historical Stories and Growing Region Introduction

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Colombia produces coffee beans in many regions across the country, but the central "Coffee Zone" is the most famous, and it's the second most visited tourist destination in the country after Cartagena. In addition to coffee beans, there's also a local coffee farm culture spanning over a century, which has been listed as a UNESCO World Cultural Heritage site.

The so-called "Coffee Zone" is located about 7 hours west of the capital Bogotá and about 7 hours south of Medellín, including three provinces: Caldas, Risaralda, and Quindío, with respective capitals of Manizales, Pereira, and Armenia. Locals habitually refer to this area as the "Coffee Axis" (Eje Cafetero).

Colombia's Coffee Growing Story

What are Colombia's coffee-producing regions?

How to brew Colombian coffee beans?

Growing Regions and Harvest Seasons

Colombian coffee cultivation is distributed along the Andes Mountains, from south to north, roughly divided into the northern region (green), central region (orange, purple), and southern region (yellow). The orange and purple areas have primary and secondary harvest seasons, while the green and yellow regions have one harvest season.

Harvest Seasons [by Region]

Due to geographical and climatic differences from north to south, the northern and southern harvest seasons are opposite, while the central region has different primary and secondary seasons depending on whether it leans north or south. Essentially, beans are produced year-round. Here, we mainly distinguish regions by winter and summer harvest seasons.

Winter Harvest Season (September to December)

Includes the following regions:

• Magdalena - Common varieties
• Santander
• Antioquia - Common varieties
• North of Santander
• Boyacá
• Meta

The central regions closer to the north have two harvest seasons: the main season is winter (September to December), and the secondary season is summer (April to May).

• Caldas
• Risaralda
• Some areas of Cundinamarca - Beginning to gain market recognition
• Some areas of Quindío - Beginning to gain market recognition
• Some areas of Tolima - Extremely rare varieties

The central regions closer to the south have two harvest seasons: the main season is summer (March to June), and the secondary season is winter (October to November).

• Some areas of Valle - Beginning to gain market recognition
• Some areas of Quindío
• Some areas of Cundinamarca
• Some areas of Tolima

Summer Harvest Season (March to June)

Includes the following regions:

• Some areas of Valle
• Cauca - Rare varieties
• Some areas of Cundinamarca
• Huila - Elite varieties
• Nariño - Very rare varieties

Note: The harvest seasons mentioned here refer to the stage when coffee cherries mature in the producing regions and are harvested for processing. Typically, it takes 2-3 months after this stage ends before new harvest season beans reach us as consumers.

Growing Pattern

95% of growers are small farmers with family plantings of less than 5 hectares.

Production

Small farmer families produce an average of 25 bags annually, with each bag weighing 70kg.

Growing Altitude

1000 - 2500 meters

Annual Rainfall

1000 - 2500 millimeters

Average Temperature

15.8 - 20.5 degrees Celsius

Growing Varieties

In addition to common varieties in American growing regions such as Caturra, Bourbon, Typica, and Pacamara, Colombia also has three unique disease-resistant varieties: Castillo, Tabi, and the Colombia variety (named after the country). Of course, there are also some rare and precious varieties like Gesha, small-grained Moccha, Rume Sudan, Eugenioides, Laurina (Bourbon Pointu), and Maragogipe (a natural hybrid of Maragogipe and Gesha).

Shade Trees

In the growing regions, you'll see lemon and orange trees used as shade trees. The lemons from these lemon trees look particularly like oranges, but they're extremely sour when eaten. Locals have a way of eating them with a strong liquor, much like drinking a cocktail, and it's quite delicious.

Harvest Seasons

Colombia's growing regions are influenced by the Andes Mountains terrain, divided from south to north into three major regions: northern, central, and southern. The southern and northern regions have distinct seasons, while the central region has primary and secondary seasons depending on whether it leans north or south, as detailed in the information below.

Processing Methods

Primarily washed processing, but now natural and honey processing methods are also emerging. In conventional washed processing, fermentation is typically dry fermentation in open environments. Recently, some techniques from wine processing have been introduced to coffee processing, using anaerobic and fermentation with varying degrees of oxygen control.

Drying

After processing, drying methods include greenhouses (not as large as our rural vegetable cultivation greenhouses - think more like the size of a sunroom balcony), patios (an open area of cement ground, recently I've seen wooden ground surfaces), and mechanical dryers (many small farmers have these).

About FNC

Industry Chain

The Colombian coffee industry includes: the National Federation of Coffee Growers (FNC), the National Coffee Research Center (CENICAFE), regional coffee producer associations (Colombia has 32 departments, 20 of which grow coffee), traders, international roasters, and all of you reading this - our esteemed "customers."

The primary mission of FNC is to be the spokesperson for Colombian coffee, committed to purchasing coffee whenever farmers are willing to sell. FNC not only serves as the international ambassador for Colombian coffee, successfully creating the "Juan Valdez"形象, but also invests significant human and material resources in farmers' cultivation, production, management, and sustainable operations within Colombia.

Founded in 1938, CENICAFE serves as the technical support for FNC, dedicated to coffee variety selection and breeding, as well as agricultural training for farmers' cultivation and production.

About Varieties

Early Colombian cultivation was dominated by old Typica and Bourbon varieties, which began to be replaced by Caturra starting in 1970. Caturra not only has higher yield per plant than Typica and Bourbon, but because of its more compact tree shape, more plants can be grown per unit area.

Starting in 1961, CENICAFE began researching the Timor variety with Robusta lineage, subsequently crossing Timor with Caturra to develop Colombia's Catimor series. After 5 generations of breeding, in 1982, CENICAFE released Colombia's first disease-resistant variety, Colombia. Following the leaf rust outbreak in 1983, the Colombia variety began to be widely promoted and planted.

Subsequently, CENICAFE continued its research and development, releasing the second disease-resistant variety Tabi (a hybrid of Typica, Bourbon, and Timor) in 2002, and in 2005 released the most successful disease-resistant variety to date, Castillo. After the massive leaf rust outbreak in 2008, Colombia began vigorously promoting Castillo cultivation.

Castillo Variety Promotion and Support

This is a coffee reform support loan program launched by Colombia in 2012 to promote small farmers' cultivation of the disease-resistant Castillo variety:

• A 7-year loan program
• At final repayment, farmers only need to repay 60% of the principal, with the remaining 40% covered by the government (banks willing to participate)
• No repayment required for the first two years of the loan
• Starting from the third year, the annual interest rate is 11%, with repayments made after farmers receive funds post-harvest season

Of course, whether farmers switch to Castillo cultivation is entirely voluntary, and the above program only applies to Castillo cultivation trials.

The latest news is that in December 2016, CENICAFE released a new disease-resistant variety, CENICAFE 1, also a hybrid of Caturra and Timor (1343). It has flavor quality as excellent as Castillo, while being higher yielding and resistant to both leaf rust and coffee berry borer.

About Processing Methods

Most Colombian coffee is processed using the washed method. Each small farmer family has a small specialized processor (Ecomill or Eco-Pulper). Harvested coffee cherries are poured into it, which not only removes the skin and pulp but also removes most of the mucilage, requiring only very little water. Next, the parchment beans with residual mucilage enter a small pool or container - it could be a cement pool (some tiled) or a stainless steel barrel - for overnight fermentation to loosen the remaining mucilage. The next day, they're rinsed with clean water, completing the washed processing.

For drying, depending on weather conditions, natural drying is preferred when weather is good. If possible, there's a small shed where beans are spread on wooden racks for shade drying. Otherwise, they're spread on an open cement ground surface. If weather is poor with continuous rain, mechanical dryers are used. These dryers have inlet temperature control, typically around 50 degrees Celsius.

About Coffee Competitions

Colombia's international coffee competitions have had two forms from 2005 to the present:

• 2005-2015: Cup of Excellence (CoE)
• Starting in 2016, Colombia organized its first international coffee competition, named "LAND OF DIVERSITY," and held its first live auction. The new competition format has significant changes compared to the CoE format:

It's divided into two categories: Small Batch and Large Batch, with the first inclusion of Large Batch in the auction system. Small batches start at $5/lb, while large batches start at $2/lb.

Coffees are classified and evaluated by attribute categories. The competition evaluates small batch coffees across 5 attribute categories, and each coffee can be nominated in one or multiple categories and win the championship award for that category.

The 5 attribute categories are: Acidity, Body, Balance, and Mildness.

FrontStreet Coffee's Recommended Brewing:

• Dripper: Hario V60
• Water Temperature: 90 degrees
• Grind Size: Fuji Royal grinder setting 3.5
• Brewing Method: Water-to-coffee ratio 1:15, 15g coffee grounds. First pour 25g water for 25s bloom. Second pour to 120g, then wait until the water level drops to half before continuing to pour. Slowly pour until reaching 225g total. Extraction time around 2:00.

Analysis: Using three-stage brewing to clearly distinguish the front, middle, and back-end flavors. Because V60 has many ribs and drains quickly, stopping the pour can extend extraction time, better extracting the nutty and chocolate flavors in the back-end.

Flavor: Multi-layered, overall clean, relatively light body.

FrontStreet Coffee: A roastery in Guangzhou with a small shop but diverse bean varieties, where you can find both famous and lesser-known beans. Online shop services are also available. https://shop104210103.taobao.com

Important Notice :

前街咖啡 FrontStreet Coffee has moved to new addredd:

FrontStreet Coffee Address: 315,Donghua East Road,GuangZhou

Tel:020 38364473