Flavor Profile and Characteristics of Colombian Emerald Coffee Beans: Grinding Settings

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Many people love Colombian coffee for its silky smooth texture. Among all coffees, it boasts the best balance, with a soft and smooth mouthfeel that makes it perfect for anytime drinking. Whether in appearance or quality, Colombian Premium is excellent, like a woman's subtle charm—fascinating and perfectly balanced, leaving a memorable impression. Today, Colombia is the world's third-largest coffee producer and exporter, the largest exporter of Arabica coffee beans, and the largest exporter of washed coffee beans.

Unique Geographic Environment Creates Colombian Coffee

Colombia, with its beautiful mountains, picturesque scenery, pleasant climate, spring-like seasons, and refreshingly pure air, offers an ideal setting for coffee cultivation. Colombia's mild climate and humid air create diverse weather conditions that allow for year-round harvesting, with different coffee varieties maturing at different times. The unique Arabica coffee beans grown here produce coffee with rich flavor and endless aftertaste, truly worthy of being called coffee excellence. Today, many people equate "Colombian coffee" with "high quality" and "good taste."

History of Colombian Coffee

The history of Colombian coffee dates back to 1808 when a priest first brought coffee to Colombia from the French Antilles via Venezuela. Colombia's suitable climate provided coffee with a true "natural pasture." Since then, coffee trees took root in this country. The nation became the second-largest coffee producer after Brazil, as well as the world's largest exporter of Arabica coffee beans and washed coffee beans.

Colombian coffee is a representative excellent variety among Arabica coffee species and a traditional dark roast coffee with a strong and memorable taste. Its aroma is rich and substantial, with bright quality acidity, high balance, and sometimes nutty notes, leaving an endless aftertaste. Both in appearance and quality, Colombian coffee is superior, like a charming yet passionate woman, perfectly balanced.

Colombian coffee has balanced flavor and a smooth texture, like a gentleman among coffees—proper and well-mannered. Its production regions are extensive, with Medellin, Armenia, and Manizales being the most famous, collectively known as "MAM."

Premium Coffee Growing Regions

Colombia's premium coffee growing regions are mainly in the south, at altitudes above 1,500 meters, including San Augustin in Huila, Popayan in Cauca, Nariño Province, and Tolima Province. Coffee from these areas has refined acidity and berry notes, with caramel aroma and full sweetness.

Hacienda Esperanza

Hacienda Esperanza owns four farms (Esperanza, Las Margaritas, Cerro Azul, and Potosi). Its farms have won Best of Panama championships (2008) and runner-up (2009). In 2012, three of its products occupied an incredible 2nd, 3rd, and 7th places in the SCAA Coffee of the Year top ten. In the GFA (Good Food Award), Hacienda Esperanza also became the only award-winning farm outside Ethiopia, Kenya, and Panama.

Hacienda Esperanza differs from other farms in having a PhD botanist, three professional cuppers, and 100 full-time employees, currently managing six affiliated farms. The farms are owned by the Herrera brothers. In fact, the Herrera brothers' grandfather operated a coffee farm in Colombia's Trujillo region, which later declined, leading the brothers to leave Colombia. However, they never gave up their dream of returning to their hometown to run a coffee plantation.

Hacienda Esperanza's experimentation and innovation with varieties seem endless, constantly testing different new varieties. Besides the organic Caturra that originally occupied most of Hacienda Esperanza's area, from Geisha, organic Geisha, Mocha, Bourbon (including red, yellow, and Tekisik different Bourbons), Pacamara, San Bernardo, and Pache—they truly bring the serious attitude that wineries have toward grape varieties into coffee. After Geisha, Pacamara, Bourbon, and even Pointed Bourbon from Hacienda Esperanza continue to create surprises and admiration in the specialty coffee world.

Hacienda La Esmeralda

Hacienda La Esmeralda is located in Boyacá Department, Colombia, with an average altitude of 1,230m, average temperature of 22°C, and rainfall of 1,870ml. In its 2.62-hectare planting area, 90% is Castillo variety, harvested in the second half of the year, grown under shade, processed using traditional natural depulping methods, and has 4C certification, Rainforest Alliance certification, and UTZ certification. These basic and honest details already show this is high-purity, flavorful, high-quality coffee, but more importantly, Hacienda La Esmeralda has been selected as a local "Best Ecological Cycle" model farm. This is not only due to La Esmeralda's good living conditions, quality variety renewal, and good primary processing/drying infrastructure but also because of the perfect integration of the entire plantation with the ecosystem. The farm is densely planted with traditional shade trees such as coral beans, acacia, silk trees, and Indian laurel, with plump coffee cherries looking exceptionally red under the protection of these trees, making even the picking mood joyful.

Hacienda El Roble

Hacienda El Roble is located in Valle del Cauca Department, Colombia, with an average altitude of 1,880m, average temperature of 22°C, and rainfall of 1,920ml. In its 7.43-hectare planting area, 50% of coffee can be harvested in the first half of the year and 50% in the second half, ensuring an adequate supply of fresh coffee year-round. The full-sun planting model makes every berry plump and robust, while the large temperature difference between day and night at high altitude makes the berries honey-sweet and juicy. These conditions give Hacienda El Roble's coffee rich flavor with high-sweetness tropical fruit characteristics. Hacienda El Roble is a historic farm. Son Gálvez took over the farm from his father's generation and began changing varieties in the 1970s, breaking away from his father's monoculture model of planting only Caturra. Now Castillo variety is the most widely planted variety in the farm, not only improving the coffee trees' disease resistance and increasing yield but also greatly enhancing coffee quality. Generational inheritance of plantation farming preserves rich planting management experience and dedication and love for coffee.

Hacienda Naranjal

The name Hacienda Naranjal is delightful to hear. Located in Boyacá Department, Colombia, with an average altitude of 1,440m, average temperature of 18°C, and rainfall of 1,330ml. The planting area is 2.76 hectares, composed of 98% Castillo and 2% Caturra varieties, 100% shade-grown, with harvest season from October to January each year. The overall growing conditions appear ordinary, but this farm's coffee flavor is surprisingly bright, just like its name—ordinary-looking sweet oranges that capture every taste bud with full aroma and lively fruit acidity. Hacienda Naranjal has 4C certification and is also certified by the Colombian Federation of Women Farmers. The farm owner Garzón is a female municipal council president who manages her farm well and actively participates in old variety renewal activities, making her a leader among coffee farmers. The softness of women contains strong, persistent passion for coffee, with firm strength showing through gentle peace, once again matching the farm's name—sweet orange, where sweet and juicy flavor always needs that dazzling fruit acidity.

Hacienda La Dulcera

Readers who automatically think of Taiwan when seeing the word "brown sugar," please return—Hacienda La Dulcera is located in Caldas Department, Colombia, with an average altitude of 1,611m, average temperature of 20°C, and rainfall of 2,800ml. It's named La Dulcera because the entire farm area is 13.1 hectares, with coffee planting area of only 1.15 hectares (8%), while the remaining planting land is full of sugarcane. Coffee is the extremely rare part of the entire farm that needs careful nurturing, surrounded by lush sugarcane trees, with mature coffee cherries resembling passionate Latin American girls. 100% Castillo variety, 60% sun-grown, 40% shade-grown, the coffee has rich and layered flavor. Abundant rainfall makes the coffee beans plump, with rich nutrition and flavor. The freshness of sugarcane and smoothness of brown sugar have long been tied together with coffee. Hacienda La Dulcera has Rainforest Alliance and Fair Trade certifications. Farm owner Rivera bought this land from a family farm 16 years ago and has focused on planting ever since. His family manages the sugarcane planting and brown sugar production work on the farm. Rivera remains unmarried, and his daily busy figure shuttling through the farm is like dancing salsa with his "brown sugar girl."

Colombian Coffee Overview

Located in northwestern South America, Colombia is a beautiful country with a long history. From ancient times, indigenous people have lived and multiplied on this land. It became a Spanish colony in 1531 and gained independence in 1819. It was renamed to its current name in 1886 to commemorate the discoverer of the American continent, Columbus. Colombia, with its beautiful mountains, picturesque scenery, pleasant climate, spring-like seasons, and fresh air, is rich in natural resources, especially coffee, flowers, gold, and emeralds, which are known as the "four treasures." Today the country is the second-largest coffee producer after Brazil, the world's largest exporter of Arabica coffee beans, and the world's largest exporter of washed coffee beans. Colombian coffee is often described as having a silky smooth texture. Among all coffees, it has the best balance, with soft and smooth mouthfeel that makes it perfect for anytime drinking. It has received praise unattainable by other coffees: known as "green gold."

Hacienda Santa Rita

Hacienda Santa Rita is located in Antioquia Department, Colombia, situated in a micro-region adjacent to the Andes Mountains. This quality coffee is produced collaboratively by 9 nearby farms. These 9 farms still use traditional methods to process coffee: hand-picking coffee cherries, then traditionally washing the coffee fruit, with processed coffee beans spread on racks to dry in the sun. The environment around the Andes Mountains gives this coffee growing area fertile volcanic soil and unique water resources.

Hacienda Mirador

Mirador Farm is located in the Pitalito region at the southernmost end of Colombia's famous Huila region, known for producing high-quality coffee. Farm owner Elkin Guzman is undoubtedly a pioneer in coffee cultivation. This intelligent young grower uses the latest technology to improve his planting, harvesting, and processing techniques. After coffee cherries are harvested, they are first sorted in water tanks, then hand-sorted again before drying. For the first 8 days, they are sun-dried on raised racks with constant stirring. On the 9th day, the coffee is moved to a drying machine for 35 days to avoid excessive temperature affecting flavor.

Millennium Farm Association

Monserrate is located in the southwestern part of Valle del Cauca Department, Colombia. Most Monserrate farmers have quite small-scale plantations, treating coffee as a bulk agricultural product to exchange for cash. A few years ago, the New Millennium Farmers Association (Grupo Asociativo Productores del Nuevo Milenio) was established locally, dedicated to improving coffee quality and hoping to sell green beans at higher prices. Additionally, in 2005, USAID established the Colombia Specialty Coffee Program, introducing American specialty green bean traders to cooperate with the Millennium Farmers Association. They sent people to Monserrate to participate in coffee production and guided farmers to improve planting techniques and produce higher-quality coffee. In terms of the specialty coffee market, they also provided advice on positioning and marketing.

The association has 42 members and can produce approximately three containers (about 825 bags) of coffee green beans annually. To improve quality, the New Millennium Farmers Association continues to recruit new members in Monserrate, hoping to expand production scale. Additionally, with assistance from USAID and American traders, they established a cupping laboratory locally, teaching farmers cupping methods, hoping farmers can determine coffee quality through cupping and thereby help coffee production.

Hacienda El Diamante

Hacienda El Diamante in Colombia's Huila region is located in southwestern Colombia and is one of the main coffee cultivation areas. Because famous coffee cultivation sites are scattered throughout the Huila region, the names of various small areas have become brand names and circulated. Although the cultivation conditions in this area are also very good, the cultivation infrastructure of coffee farms and surrounding conditions is not yet well developed. Green bean drying equipment or washing processing facilities are not yet complete, which is quite regrettable. Coffee from the Huila region has strong flavor and heavier texture. Especially the nutty, chocolate, and caramel aromas and appropriate acidity of Huila region coffee can be called high-quality specialty coffee.

FrontStreet Coffee Pour-over Reference

Using a KEY filter cup, 16g of coffee grounds with 32g of water, bloom for 30 seconds, extract with water temperature of 89-90°C, ratio 1:15, medium-fine grind with Fuji 3.5. Second pour to 110ml and stop, wait for water level to drop then slowly pour again, maintaining even speed and avoiding excessively high water levels. Pour to 233ml and stop, extraction time 2:15 seconds—rich natural sweetness. Everyone can adjust according to their own taste preferences.

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