People drink more than two billion cups of coffee every day, and Colombia is one of the world’s top exporters. Coffee was reportedly introduced to Colombia in the early 19th century by Jesuit missionaries. Today, Colombia’s coffee farms stretch from the foothills of the Andes to the Cordilleras.Thanks to this varied geography, coffee cherries ripen at different times, allowing for all-year-round harvesting. Each year, Colombia produces over 11 million bags of coffee – mostly Arabica beans, known for their soft, sweet taste with notes of chocolate, nuts, and citrus.
Coffee here is grown in small farms, high up in the mountains, where the conditions are just right – rich volcanic soil, rain, and plenty of shade.
To see for myself how great coffee is made, I visited a family-owned farm near Pereira, a city in an area known as the “Coffee Axis”. What I didn’t expect was just how much work goes into making a single cup.
The farm was quiet and peaceful when I arrived. Green hills stretched in every direction, covered in rows of short trees with small, round fruits with coffee beans inside – the cherries. Guided by a local, my first task was finding a handful of bright red cherries good enough for a tasty cup of coffee.
Coffee picking is hard work. Pickers spend around ten hours a day searching for the ripest cherries, filling up their baskets that can weigh up to 150 kilograms. The more they pick, the more they get paid, but if they grab unripe or overripe cherries, they risk losing their jobs.
The usual coffee picker is either an older Colombian who had been doing this for decades, or Venezuelans passing through the country on their way to Central America, looking for work. Seeing the tough conditions and low pay, the younger generation of Colombians is increasingly choosing to study instead – the capital Bogotá alone has more than 70 universities.
There are many ways to improve the quality of coffee beans, but it all starts with the right plantation. One key trick is to never pull out an old coffee plant but to simply cut it back. By keeping the roots in the soil, the plant remains robust and continues to thrive. It is also important is to grow coffee near bamboos, which helps retain moisture in the soil. To reach the classic Colombian flavour, coffee plants are grown next to other fruit trees, like avocados, which contribute to the sweet notes.
Once I had enough cherries, it was time to remove the outer layers. I placed them into an old machine which stripped away the red skin. Inside was a small, white bean, covered in a sweet, transparent layer that tasted a bit like lychee.
Next came roasting. One of the family members scooped up the raw beans and poured them into a pot, holding it over an open flame. She kept shaking it constantly so the beans wouldn’t burn. Within a few minutes, the beans darkened.
I then ground the beans into a fine powder, which was then brewed the old-fashioned way – by suspending a cloth filter over a pot and slowly pouring hot water through it.
Compared to a strong espresso, this method makes a gentler cup, something Colombians often drink all day without feeling wired. Arabica beans, which include less caffeine and more oils and sugar than Robusta, added to that smoothness.