The Road of Coffee Development in Colombia how Colombia has changed from drug production to boutique coffee

Colombia is rich in coffee production and has always been the second largest coffee producer only after Brazil. However, from 2003 to 2007, it was overtaken by Vietnam and is now the third largest coffee producer in the world. And more than 2 million people in Colombia depend on coffee production for a living, accounting for almost 1/4 of the domestic job market. Coffee is a very important cash crop!

Colombian boutique coffee has great potential.

In the past, Colombia attached more importance to the commercial coffee bean market, but after 2001, Colombia began to enter the relatively niche boutique coffee market, which is much slower than Brazil and Guatemala, which also belong to Central and South America. This is mainly because Colombia was not optimistic about the boutique coffee market at that time and did not begin to catch up until 2000!

But even if one step behind others, the Colombian environment is very suitable for the growth of boutique coffee, not only rich landforms, but also low latitude, high altitude, compared with Brazil, in boutique coffee has a great explosive power!

Commercial coffee beans are concentrated in central and northern Colombia, mostly large-scale entrepreneurial coffee farmers. Among them, the three well-known producing areas of "MAM" are Medell í n, Armenia and Manizales. The main flavor is the well-known Central American flavor with a strong sense of fruit acid. But Bucaramanga, produced in the northeastern province of Santander, is known for its low acidity and bitterness, similar to Indonesia's Mantenin. (this phenomenon may be due to the decrease in acidity in Kansai at a lower altitude.)

The producing area of boutique coffee beans is mainly in the south, Haida is more than 1500 meters, and there are many volcanoes, creating many well-known boutique producing areas, including Cauca, Huila, Meta, Tolima, Nari ñ o, etc., the main flavor is caramel aroma, with delicate berry aroma and sour aroma, and the sweet taste is obvious!

Coffee bean size is important, but it doesn't represent flavor.

Colombian coffee focuses on size rather than flavor, so if you see the top "Supremo", don't regard it as a representative of good taste. It just means that 80% of the coffee bean size is more than 17 items, which has nothing to do with the flavor, so you must pay special attention to which producing area, the southern boutique producing areas will mark the provinces and place names, if there is no famous. Those are mostly commercial coffee beans!

Conclusion

Most Colombian coffee is washed and processed, and fine coffee is mostly produced in small and medium-sized self-run farms, which are usually of better quality than large-scale cultivation in Brazil. In addition, the Colombian Coffee Farmers Association (Federacion Nacional de Cafeteros de Colombia, referred to as FNC) has a special project to promote fine coffee, which can only be exported through strict quality control!

In Stephen's experience, Colombian boutique coffee is really impressive, from the flowers I have drunk to geisha (full of flowers) and pink bourbon (with a special white flower aroma, similar to lilies), as well as a recently tried Revera geisha (flowers similar to white musk), the quality is really excellent!