Colombia is one of the most famous coffee producers. And here in Antioquia (the province of Medellin) is one of the centers. (which is the reason why this area came to a lot of wealth in the 18 and early 19 hundreds. Therefore I decided to hop on a tour to visit one of the local, family owned farms where you can learn and witness all levels of production from growing of seedlings to roasting, grinding and tasting. Tourism is still very young here, so the whole family (Inc. grandparents) joined the tour and our lunch to get a chance to talk to us gringos (as far as our Spanish skills made it possible :D)
It is a really tough business. However, coffee was mostly produced for the export, so there is not really a coffee culture as we know it from home. People do drink coffee, but there are no coffee houses where people gather socially to enjoy a cup (apart from some Starbucks slowly creeping in). High quality beans are exported, since the farmers earn much more if they sell it abroad. In addition, beans are usually exported in their dried green raw form. The sophisticated art of roasting is something people here are just about to explore. The farmer here was very open about this. It will probably take some time until you can enjoy coffee here in the same quality and ambience as in hipster Melbourne or an coffee house in Vienna.
breakfast, including another Colombian specialty: hot chocolate
the plantations
drying
some quick sugar cane snack
roasting in a pan with different temperatures and lengths
and subsequent tasting of our products
fancy hipster coffee machine
Chau
No comments:
Post a Comment