Grown amongst panela sugar, plantains, pineapples, yucca and lemons, you can understand where the sweetness of this particularly smooth and creamy espresso come from. This single origin Columbian certainly sees the country live up to its reputation for producing mild, well-balanced coffee beans.
Our Colombian beans are sourced from the Colombian plateau, specifically the Indigenous Central Cooperative of Cauca (CENCOIC). The co-operative has seen the political landscape of the area change drastically for the better and they are now thankfully able to grow and export coffee without the threat of conflict.
Colombia’s average annual coffee production of 11.5 million bags is the third total highest in the world, after Brazil and Vietnam (though highest in terms of the arabica bean).
The coffee plant had spread to Colombia by 1790. The oldest written testimony to its presence in Colombia is attributed to a Jesuit priest, José Gumilla. In his book The Orinoco Illustrated (1730), he registered the presence of coffee in the mission of Saint Teresa of Tabajé, near where the Meta river empties into the Orinoco.
Further testimony comes from the archbishop-viceroy Caballero y Gongora (1787) who registered the presence of the crop in the north east of the country near Giron (Santander) and Muzo (Boyaca) in his report to the Spanish authorities. The first coffee crops were planted in the eastern part of the country.
In 1808 the first commercial production was registered with 100 green coffee bags (60 kg each) exported from the port of Cucuta, near the border with Venezuela. A priest named Francisco Romero is said to have been very influential in the propagation of the crop in the north east region of the country. After hearing the confession of the parishioners of the town of Salazar de la Palmas, he required as penance the cultivation of coffee. Coffee became established in the departments of Santander and North Santander, Cundinamarca, Antioquia, and the historic region of Caldas. Despite these early developments, the consolidation of coffee as a Colombian export did not come about until the second half of the 19th century. The great expansion that the world economy underwent at that time allowed Colombian landowners to find attractive opportunities in international markets. Little by little, the United States became the most important consumer of coffee in the world, while (Germany) and France became the most important markets in Europe. Today, coffee beans are exported to the United States, Germany, France, Japan and Italy.
In 2007, the European Union granted Colombian coffee a protected designation of origin status and, in 2011, UNESCO declared the “Coffee Cultural Landscape” of Colombia, a World Heritage site.
