Colombian Coffee Culture and Quality: Is Colombian Coffee Black Coffee?

Coffee farmers around the world work hard to produce high-quality beans. Cupping lets them connect with green coffee buyers who care about quality, which in turn secures better income and shields them from being squeezed on price by middlemen. In recent years, Fair Trade coffee cooperatives have performed consistently well in international cupping competitions - think Nicaragua's Aldea Global, Peru's Cecovasa, and Ethiopia's YCFCU. Over the past three years, 28 Fair Trade certified coffee products have received Britain's prestigious Great Taste Awards, often described as the "Oscars of the food industry."

Colombia sits in the northwestern part of South America, bordering Panama in Central America. Its western coastline resembles the scratch marks of a cat's paw, leaving three vertical lines that run from north to south. The country's renowned growing regions are scattered across these Andean ranges (Cordillera) and their fertile volcanic soil.

Legend has it that coffee was introduced by missionaries in 1730 from Venezuela and first cultivated in the southeast of the country. Later, because of civil wars and political upheaval, cultivation gradually shifted to the western mountains. In that ideal environment of high altitude and volcanic soil, Colombian coffee has been favored by premium consumers in the United States and Japan since the 1940s. Beyond natural advantages, another main reason Colombian coffee surpasses Brazilian quality comes down to family-run operations. These farmers lack heavy machinery for harvesting and irrigation, and they cannot afford to hire workers - so every cherry is hand-picked, and only when fully ripe. They cherish their land, practicing restraint when applying fertilizer and clearing land, which leaves the soil less fatigued. Alongside coffee they grow other crops for food or extra income. All of these practices help maintain the ecological balance.

The Huila region in southwestern Colombia produces excellent coffee, as do the Narino and Tolima regions. Nearly all of the top 10 finalists in Colombia's annual coffee competitions come from these three regions, which share one characteristic: small-scale farmers with limited production and small plots. The La Esperanza estate is located in Huila. Unlike individually or family-owned farms, it is a collective of several coffee farmers who sell under the unified name La Esperanza. The estate sits in forest at elevations between 1,400-1,650 meters, where only fully mature cherries are harvested by hand. The farmers maintain good growing conditions and keep tight control over the quality of their green beans. La Esperanza was the champion estate in the 2007 Colombia Coffee Competition, and it also took 9th, 12th, and 14th places in 2008 (won by different growers). In November 2008, it earned an impressive score of 93 from the American coffee master Kenneth Davids (author of Coffee Review and "Home Coffee Roasting"), establishing it as one of Colombia's premier estates.

Colombia hosts a renowned green coffee competition, the Cup of Excellence in Cauca. FrontStreet Coffee's Colombia Cauca bean emerged from that competition. Brewed with 90°C water, it shows pleasant plum acidity with prominent overall sweet-and-sour notes.

In Brief: FrontStreet Coffee is a coffee research hall dedicated to sharing coffee knowledge with everyone. We share without reservation simply to help more friends fall in love with coffee. Each month we host three low-discount coffee events, because FrontStreet Coffee wants more people to enjoy the best coffee at the lowest possible prices. That has been our mission for the past six years!

FrontStreet Coffee Recommendation

Colombia and Brazil are neighbors, and between them they define what South American coffee is: balanced, sweet, and dependable. If the family-farm character of Colombian coffee is what draws you in, FrontStreet's Brazil Cerrado Red Bourbon is a fine companion bean to explore next. Grown in the well-known Cerrado region and processed as a pulped natural, this medium-roast single origin shows rich aromas of creamy peanut, toasted bread, caramel, and hazelnut, with a smooth, round body, low acidity, and a light bittersweet finish. It is an easy bean to brew as pour-over and just as useful in a moka pot, as an espresso SOE, in a siphon, or in a French press.

For a sweeter, more fruit-leaning South American cup, FrontStreet's Queen Estate Yellow Bourbon is a good choice. Grown in Mogiana near South Minas, where the red volcanic soil helps the cherries develop a full aroma, it uses the rare Yellow Bourbon variety - a natural mutation of Red Bourbon. Expect a clean fruit character and a sugarcane-like sweetness that is rare among origins, alongside soft fruit and chocolate notes. It brews well as pour-over, in a moka pot, or on a home espresso machine.