The faint and elegant aroma of Colombian coffee

Walking into the Columbia Pavilion of the Shanghai World Expo, you can smell the faint aroma of coffee, not as strong as Brazilian coffee, not as sour as African coffee, but a sweet fragrance, low-key and elegant.

The 16th is the National Pavilion Day of the Republic of Colombia, so the flow of people in the Colombian Pavilion is particularly crowded. Colombia has the famous four treasures: coffee, flowers, gold and emeralds. As the first of the four treasures, Colombian premium coffee is placed in the most eye-catching window of the exhibition hall, the price is not cheap: 118 yuan per bag.

In 1808, a priest introduced coffee beans to Colombia for the first time from the French Antilles via Venezuela. 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.

According to Aragorn Thomas, manager of the venue business department, the best coffee beans in Colombia come from the highlands of the Andes, where the climate is mild, the air is humid, and the mountain steps of different heights provide a variety of climates. it is the harvest season for coffee beans all year round, and different kinds of coffee ripen at different times. Due to the high humidity, small temperature difference and slow ripening of coffee beans in the coffee forest, it is conducive to the accumulation of caffeine and aromatic substances, so the quality of coffee is the best. Thomas said that coffee workers go up the mountain to pick coffee beans (also known as coffee cherries) by hand, so they can pick carefully to pick the most ripe and full fruits. The vast majority of Colombian coffee beans are water-washed and moderately roasted with a light silky and sometimes sour taste, which is not as strong as Brazilian coffee and Italian Expresso and is known as "green gold".

Columbia Pavilion official Mercio Prada told Xinhua that the venue held a two-week coffee exhibition for visitors to taste Colombian coffee and introduce and promote Colombian coffee and coffee culture to tourists from China and around the world.

Jamie Valencia, a history professor who participated in the construction of the Columbia Pavilion, said that as tourism between Colombia and China heats up, cultural exchanges between the two countries will become more frequent. "although Chinese people like to drink tea, it is not impossible to gradually change some of their food culture, and now there are some changes," he said. "

He said that thousands of Chinese people had tasted Colombian premium coffee at the Shanghai World Expo, opening a window for Chinese people to understand Colombian coffee and coffee culture.