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| Introduction to the appellation
Colombia is the world's third largest coffee exporter, mainly producing Arabica coffee, and is also the country that exports the most Arabica beans. Colombia is rich in products, especially coffee, flowers, gold and emeralds are known as the "Four Treasures". Colombia is located in the northwest of the South American continent, bordering Panama in Central America. From the aerial view, its west side looks like it has been scratched by a cat; from north to south, it leaves three vertical claw marks. The country's famous production areas are scattered in these andes mountains with fertile volcanic soils.
In 1808, a priest introduced coffee to Colombia for the first time via Venezuela from the French Antilles. 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 taste, and of all coffees, it has the best balance, a soft, silky taste, and can be drunk at any time, and it has won praise that other coffees cannot match: it is known as "green gold".
Volcanic soil + family-run
Legend has it that coffee was introduced by missionaries from Venezuela in 1730 and grown in the southeast of the country. Later, due to civil war and political reasons, it gradually moved to the western mountains. In an ideal environment of height and volcanic soil, Colombian coffee has been pushed by high-end consumers in the United States and Japan since the 1940s until it is ripe before it can be picked by hand. They cherish the land they live on, from the choice of fertilizer to the reclamation will be appropriate, so less land fatigue.
In addition to coffee, locals plant tall trees or banana trees around the coffee trees. At the seedling stage, a pergola is set up for the coffee trees to ensure the cool and moist environment required for coffee growth. Due to the high humidity and small temperature difference in the coffee forest, the coffee beans mature slowly. In addition to the innate conditions, Colombian coffee is better than Brazil's quality in another main reason: family-run business. They did not have heavy machinery for harvesting irrigation, nor did they have spare money to hire workers, and all the coffee cherries were conducive to the accumulation of caffeine and aromatic substances, so that the coffee quality was the best.
| The season in the appellation
Colombia's appellations are divided into three regions from south to north, north, central, and southern, and the southern part of the country, with two primary and secondary seasons in the central part, two harvest seasons a year, the main season from October to January, and the secondary season from April to July.
Columbus coffee cultivation is distributed along the Andes Mountains, from south to north, roughly divided into northern production areas (green), central production areas (orange, purple) and southern production areas (yellow), of which the orange purple area has two primary and secondary seasons, and the green and yellow areas have one season.
Harvest season【Varies by region】
Due to the difference in geographical and climatic characteristics from north to south, the north and south production seasons are just the opposite, and the central part has different primary and secondary production seasons according to the south or north, it can be said that there are beans produced all year round, and we are mainly divided into regions according to the winter season and the summer season.
The winter season runs from September to December and includes areas
Magdalena Magdalena Common items
Santander Santander
Antioquia Andioquia Common items
North of Santander North of Santander
Boyaca Boyacka
Meta Meta
In the areas near the north of the central region, there will be two main and secondary seasons, the main season is from September to December in winter, and the second season is between April and May in summer
Caldas Caldas
Risaralada Risarada
Cundinamarca Part of Quintina Maca is beginning to make a name for itself in the market
Parts of the Quinido Kindeo are beginning to make a name for themselves in the market
Tolima Part of the Tolima Area Sub-Plemicarium Common Items
In the central region near the south, there will be two main and secondary seasons, the main season is from March to June in summer and the second season is from October to November in winter
Parts of Valle Valle are beginning to emerge in the market
Part of Quindio Quindio
Cundinamarca Part of Quintina Maca
Part of Tolima Tolima
The summer season runs from March to June, including areas
Part of Valle Valle
Cauca Coca sub-ashes are common
Huila Whelan Ashes are common
Narino Na Linglong Secondary ashes are common
Note: The production season mentioned here is the stage of processing and processing after the coffee cherries are ripe and harvested in the production area, usually 2-3 months after the end of this stage, there will be real new season beans arriving at our consumer end.
| Coffee varieties
In addition to the common Cadura Catura, Bourbon, Tinpica, And Parque Mala common in the American appellations, Colombia also has its own unique three disease-resistant varieties, namely Castillo, Tabi Tabi and the national Colombian Colonmopia variety; of course, there are also some rare and valuable varieties like Gemsha, small-grained Mocha Mocca, Rume Sudan Rome Sultan, Eugenioides Eugenioides, Laurina pointed bourbon, Maraguesa Mara Gemsa (a natural hybrid of Maragorzpi and Gemsia).
At the Colombian coffee feast, I was fortunate enough to drink a powder bourbon that killed many Colombian summers, and I learned that there was such a fascinating coffee variety. Popularly speaking, bourbon is a coffee tree species that belongs to a branch of the Arabica species, generally bearing red fruits, called red bourbon, in addition to yellow bourbon, orange bourbon, yellow bourbon relatively low yield, but better quality.
Some experts say that the pink bourbon of Columbia's gem summer is not bourbon,
Recently, there was also a Colombian sunbathing bean. Called wush wush, it is rare to see sun-dried beans in Colombia. Look at the tweet "There's a bean, it's on fire... Is Wush a coffee variety or a coffee source? 】
The early varieties planted in Colombia were the old tin pickup and bourbon, which were replaced by Kadura in 1970; not only was Kadura more productive than the tin pew, but because the tree was more compact, more could be planted per unit.
Beginning in 1961, CENICAFE began to study the Timor variety of Robusta ancestry, followed by the selection of Timor and Catturra out of the CatimCatimor series in Colombia, after 5 generations of breeding, in 1982, CENICAFE released Colombia's first disease-resistant planting variety Colombia, followed by the emergence of leaf rust in 1983, The Colombian variety began to be planted in large quantities.
Subsequently, CENICAFE continued its research and development, releasing the second disease-resistant variety Tabi (a hybrid of tin pickup, bourbon and Timur) in 2002, releasing castillo, the most effective disease-resistant variety to date, and after the outbreak of leaf rust in 2008, Colombia began to vigorously promote Castillo cultivation.
| Treatment
Most of the Colombian coffee is washed, and each smallholder family has a small special processor (Ecomill or Eco-Pulper), and the harvested coffee cherries are poured into it, which not only removes the peel pulp, but also removes most of the pectin, and only a very small amount of water is required; next, the shell beans with a small amount of residual pectin will enter a small pool or container, which may be a cement pool (some tiles), may be a stainless steel bucket, Leave the residual pectin left over from fermentation overnight, rinse with water the next day, and complete the water washing process.
Dry, according to the weather, if the weather is good, of course, the first choice is natural drying, there will be a small shed, laid to the wood trellis to dry; otherwise, it will be laid on an empty cement floor for drying; if the weather is not good, rainy, then use a dryer to dry, the dryer will have an intake temperature control, usually around 50 degrees Celsius.
| Coffee-producing areas
Colombia is best known for its production areas such as Medellin, Armenia and Manizales, which are customarily referred to collectively as "MAM".
Colombia's fine bean-producing regions are predominantly southern, at altitudes above 1,500 meters, including San Augustin, Huila in the province of Huilan, Popayan (Cauca), Nariño, and Tolima, where the products have delicate sour and berry aromas, caramel aromas, and are full of sweetness.
From north to south, Colombia's appellations are:
Santander/North of Santander Santander and Northern Santander
Santander is a well-known appellation in northern Colombia, bordering Magdalenajo to the west and grown at an altitude of about 1400-1600 meters, the coffee beans in this appellation are known for their strong taste, long aftertaste and unique fresh flavor of grass and trees.
Antioquia Antioquia
The province of Antioquia, located in north-central Colombia, has 126,000 hectares of coffee cultivation and produces 18% of Colombia's coffee beans, second only to Huila. Most of the province is part of the alpine terrain of the Andes, but is blown by the warm sea breeze of the Caribbean Sea, and the provincial capital, Medellin, is the second largest city in Colombia and an important coffee producing area in Colombia.
Tolima Tolima
Tolima is close to huila and cauca, home to the M. Andes, which run north-south. Andes) and the Cordillera Mountains (M. Cordillera) runs through the R. Magdalena River ( R. Magdalene ) , which runs from south to north between two famous mountain systems. Magdalena）。
Tolima's name comes from the earliest inhabitants here, "Pijaopeople", in the language of this ancient population (Pijao word), tolima means "snow covered", "snowed". Tolima's farms are generally slightly larger than those in other southern Colombian appellations, ranging from about 10-15 hectares. Cooperatives are also prevalent here, where farmers send their small batches of fresh coffee to the cooperative's processing plant. Some farmers also choose to treat themselves, using their own small-scale processing facilities that can handle the amount of the day's picking.
Huila Huilan
Located in the southern part of the Central Mountains in the southern part of Colombia, Huilan Province is the most famous specialty coffee producing region in the country. This area is surrounded by hills and is planted at an altitude of more than 1500 meters, where the most important rivers in Colombia meet, bringing abundant water resources and water vapor.
Contrary to the general impression of the balance and mellowness of large Colombian coffee, many smallholder corun products produced in small batches are actually very characteristic of the region. In recent years, with the international market's emphasis on coffee quality and the requirements for specialty coffee, the original bean size grading system has been gradually abandoned, and the micro-regional selections provided by small coffee farmers in micro-production area production organizations have been changed to micro-regional selections, and dozens of small farmers have provided their unit harvests into a micro batch to sell, and because of the opportunity to directly select many special smallholder coffees with excellent quality through batch-by-batch cup testing.
Cauca Kauka
The province of Cauca is a certified region of Colombian coffee origin, with an average altitude of 1758 m and a maximum altitude of 2100 m, and the terrain, precipitation, temperature and volcanic soil of the region prepare suitable conditions for the growth of coffee. 80% is mountainous, with parallel distributions in the eastern and central mountains, part of the Andes, the central mountain system includes two major volcanoes Sotaara and Petacas, and the border of The Khao Kau province is similar to other southwestern production areas, with a pronounced monomodal distribution of precipitation, the dry season mainly occurs in August to September each year, followed by a concentrated coffee flower season, followed by a concentrated coffee harvest season the following year.
The biggest difference in climate from other production areas is probably a relatively large temperature difference, with an average daily temperature of 11 °C and an average daily temperature of 18 °C, and the temperature difference between day and night is an important factor in constituting high-quality coffee. Low temperatures at night and relatively higher altitudes slow down the growth of coffee, allowing coffee seeds and beans to more fully absorb the nutrients of coffee cherries, resulting in better acidity and a particularly sweet taste of Cauca coffee.
What is the Coca Excellence Cup?
Since 2014, there have been competitions such as the Cauca Best Cup, which is organized by well-known American traders, local exporters and the Colombian Coffee Association. In 2014, the first Edition of the Kauka Excellence Cup received about 200 samples, while in 2015 it was more than double the number, about 500 smallholder farmers competed in the competition, and the organizers will select the top 30 from more than 500 samples, and then the international jury will select the final top 12, and on the last day of the event, the raw bean merchants and bakers from all over the world will compete for the cup.
Competitions like the Kauka Cup are really helpful in substance. Not only does it increase the income of small farmers a lot and have the opportunity to improve their living conditions, but it also makes them more willing to invest and refine in coffee cultivation and production, and produce higher quality coffee.
The local judges selected 30 batches from 500 batches to enter the final after four rounds of cup testing, and the 30 international judges conducted two rounds of cup evaluation to compare the last ten.
Narino Na Linglong
Narino province is located in the southwest of the country, west of the Pacific Ocean, south of Ecuador, the Andean Mountains traverse the province, coffee is grown in the high altitude cloud belt of 1600-2300, the soil is fertile volcanic geology, beans are small but full, emerald green. Most of the annual production of the Na Linglong production area is purchased by large American soybean merchants.
Located in the southwest of Colombia, bordered by the Pacific Ocean to the west and neighboring Ecuador (Ecuadorian Erll) to the south, the Andean Mountains run through the province, where there are magnificent mountains and beautiful scenery, and many rivers flowing south through this area, belonging to Colombia's alpine coffee cultivation area, which has bred many smallholders of specialty coffee. The total annual output of Na linglong province is about 150,000 bags, while the part belonging to the pickled beans is only about 6,000 bags.
| Coffee grading
Colombian coffee is graded by particle size, Supremo is the highest order above 17 orders, followed by Excelso16 order - 14 orders.
| FNC
The Colombian Coffee Producers Association FNC, including the Colombian National Coffee Research Center CENICAFE, regional coffee production associations around the country (Colombia has 32 regional Segments, 20 of which have coffee cultivation), traders, international roasters and much more.
FNC's biggest purpose is to be the spokesperson of Colombian coffee, promising that as long as the coffee farmers are willing to sell coffee, FNC is willing to buy, FNC not only to do colombian coffee international ambassadors in the international market to do coffee marketing promotion, successfully created the "Uncle Juan" image; at the same time in Colombia has also invested a lot of manpower and material resources to participate in farmers' planting and production, management and continuous operation.
CENICAFE was founded in 1938 as a technical support for FNC dedicated to coffee variety breeding, agronomic training for farmers growing and producing.