Where to Find Chocolate-Flavored Coffee Beans: Colombian Coffee with Chocolate Flavor

FrontStreet Coffee: An Introduction to Colombia's Cauca Region

Cauca is one of Colombia's departments with a certified denomination of origin. It lies in the southwest of the country, bordering Narino and Huila, and ranks among Colombia's most important specialty coffee regions.

Eighty percent of Cauca is mountainous, with an average altitude of around 1,800 meters and peaks up to 2,100 meters. Its eastern and central stretches are formed by parallel ranges belonging to the Andes. The central system includes two major volcanoes, Sotara and Petacas, while its boundary winds along the permanently snow-capped Huila mountains. The coffee zone is ringed by towering peaks that block both the moisture-laden airflow off the Pacific and the trade winds from the south. Combined with its closeness to the equator, that keeps the climate stable and humid with abundant sunshine all year. The result — the topography, the climate, the rainfall, and the nutrient-rich volcanic ash soil — is an unusually favorable environment for growing high-quality coffee.

The biggest climatic difference between Cauca and other regions is the wide swing between day and night. The annual average temperature difference is about 11°C, while the average daytime temperature sits around 18°C. That day-night variation is a crucial factor in quality: the relatively cool nights, together with high altitude, slow the coffee's growth, letting the seed and bean absorb the fruit's nutrients more completely. The payoff is Cauca's superior acidity and its especially notable sweetness — a point the industry singles out for praise.

Following Colombia's best traditions, all coffee from Cauca is hand-picked and washed, which safeguards the quality of the green beans. Top Cauca coffee typically shows rich florals, high acidity, pleasing sweetness, a medium body, and a clean, mild mouthfeel. Its signature flavors run toward berries, caramel, dark chocolate, and grapefruit, with a sweet aftertaste that lingers.

A Note on Shade

High-quality cherries benefit from good shade. Tree cover blocks the intense midday sun, slows the coffee's metabolic rate, and helps the plant build up nutrients, fruit acids, and aromatic compounds.

FrontStreet Coffee is a coffee research hub devoted to sharing coffee knowledge freely, because the goal is to help more people fall in love with the drink. Every month it holds three coffee promotion events at significant discounts, an effort to offer the best coffee at the lowest possible prices — the mission FrontStreet Coffee has pursued for the past six years.

FrontStreet Coffee Recommendation

FrontStreet Colombia Huila. Huila, in the southern central range, is the country's most famous specialty region. It is hill country hemmed in by mountains, planted above 1,500 meters, with Colombia's most important rivers converging there and bringing abundant water and humidity. FrontStreet's washed Huila is medium-dark roasted, which foregrounds dark chocolate and the sweet aroma of nuts, with moderate oils and a full body. It handles a pour-over or a French press with ease, and it also shines extracted in a moka pot or an espresso machine — Americanos and lattes included.

FrontStreet Premium Espresso Blend. For anyone with a home espresso machine or a moka pot, this is the baristas' pick: an espresso blend built for running a coffee shop. It pairs the creamy, nutty sweetness of Brazilian coffee with the dark chocolate bittersweetness of Colombian coffee, and it pulls with a fine, golden crema. It is superb with milk as a rich, smooth latte, is very forgiving for beginners, and works as the base for an Americano, cappuccino, mocha, or any classic espresso drink.

FrontStreet Colombia Sidra. Colombian coffee was traditionally washed, but recent years have brought a wave of experimental processing. Anaerobic fermentation is one such approach — sometimes called carbonic maceration, it is simply fermentation in a low-oxygen or oxygen-free environment, usually in a pressure-resistant stainless steel tank, where temperature, time, pH, and other variables can be controlled. The best-known styles are anaerobic natural and anaerobic washed; this lot is anaerobic natural, and the oxygen-free fermentation converts the coffee's aromatics into far more tropical fruit. Medium-light roasted for pour-over, cold brew, drip bags, or a moka pot, it delivers complex, intense notes of passion fruit, grape, apricot, and dried fruit.