Origin Spotlight: Colombia

Colombian coffee, sought after for cutting edge processing and cultivation techniques, everyone has their eyes turned to this origin for the next “it” trendy coffee. Over the last decade we’ve seen Colombian coffee slowly dominate everything from the World Coffee Championship stage (WCC) to retail bags across the globe because of the uniqueness available with these coffees, but why is that? In this blog post hope to shed some light on why everyone has such a close eye on the coffees coming out of Colombia by breaking down the history of coffee production in the county, the uniqueness of the microclimates found in its growing regions, why we’re seeing more cutting edge techniques coming out of the country and why we’re excited to be working there. We hope that this blog post allows you to leave with a better appreciation of this origin and has you buzzing with excitement whenever you see a new Colombian coffee hit our shelves! 

History of Colombian coffee:

To better understand how Colombia became the “it” origin we all know and love, it's important to know some of the history surrounding Colombian coffee. Luckily we’ve put together a brief overview that can hopefully help with some of the points we’ll expand upon a little later in this post.

Colombia’s introduction to coffee, like several other origins, came in the form of Jesuit missionaries in the 18th century. Coffee, and coffee cultivation, were not originally native to the country and coffee plants originally started being planted in the mountainous northeast, in regions like Antioquia, where the climate and altitude were more suitable for high-quality coffee production. By the mid-1800s, coffee began to emerge as a key export for the country, first exported to the U.S. in 1835, and helped establish Colombia as a premium origin for coffee. In 1927 a group of prominent coffee producers from the Zona Cafetera (also known as the Eje Cafetero, or the Coffee Triangle*), came together to form the Federacion Nacional de Cafeteros de Colombia (FNC) with the aim to represent farmers by promoting and negotiating fair prices in the global sale of their coffee. Prior to this the majority of coffee production was allocated to a few major producers who operated large farms, called haciendas, with the work mainly being carried out by peasants, indigenous people, and former slaves. With the Great Depression looming over everyone and affecting even the richest in the nation, many haciendas went bankrupt and in an attempt to keep coffee production alive in the country the government purchased these large farms, divided them up, and then sold them to workers who could plant other crops alongside coffee. Fast forwarding to post World War II, in the 1950s and 1960s, Colombian coffee started gaining  international acclaim due to its more mild flavor and balanced acidity that many troops returning home found comfort in. Now that we have a better understanding of some of the history surrounding Colombian coffee it’s important to understand Colombia as a coffee growing origin, the rich biodiversity and unique microclimates found within the country.

*The Coffee Triangle, is a part of the Paisa region and has four main departments Caldas, Quindío, Risaralda and Tolima. The reason for this is because these coffee growing regions are situated between Medellin, Bogota, and Cali which are some of the country's largest cities.

 Ecosystem and Microclimate of Colombia:

Situated along the Equator, Colombia has stable year round temperatures and is acclaimed for its well-balanced rainy and dry seasons that create some of the perfect conditions for coffee to thrive. These more stable conditions, temperature and rainfall, allow the coffee trees to produce two harvests a year! This is a rare advantage in the world of coffee production where outside of a handful of origins (Kenya, Indonesia and of course Colombia) there is typically only one harvest a year. Colombia's coffee growing regions are also known for their rich biodiversity and the natural environment plays a key role in the quality of its coffee!

Colombia's home to a variety of ecosystems, including but not limited to, tropical forests, mountains, and coastal areas that all provided unique advantages to coffee production. These areas are known for having mineral rich volcanic soils that provide coffee plants with the essential nutrients needed to create the distinct cup characteristics we all love. Many coffee producers have also adopted shade-growing coffee practices, this where coffee is grown under the canopy of native fauna, and can help create microclimates that better regulate the temperature and sun exposure to the coffee plants. With shade grown practices you’re not only helping maintain the natural ecosystems (flora, fauna and fungi) found in those areas but you’re also ensuring that crops aren’t competing for the same resources, such as nutrients and minerals found in the soil. These practices also allow for more diverse ecosystems to form allowing native species of both plants and animals to call many coffee farms home. These factors combined, high altitudes, mineral rich soils and biodiversity, allow coffee plants to create complex sugars within the fruit that encase the seed, i.e. coffee beans, that result in complex flavor and aromatic compounds. These flavor and aromatic compounds are what our brain uses to “fill in the blanks” to come up with tasting notes, perceived sweetness, acidity and the aroma of any given coffee.

Innovation in Coffee Processing & Cultivation:

Now that we have a solid foundation of the history and terroir of Colombian coffees it’s time to dive head first into the breeding ground of innovation in the specialty coffee world. Producers such as Diego Horta, one of our producing partners, are adopting innovative fermentation techniques that explore expanding upon how we taste and talk about coffee! Using controlled fermentation Diego, and many other producers, are able to experiment with using specific enzymes, yeasts, and other additives to create new dimensions to their coffees. These modern techniques enable us to create coffees with unlively flavor profiles by using processing techniques that many of us are familiar with (washed, honey and natural) as a base for processing but expand upon them by pulling from other industries like the beer or wine industry to help create unique experiences in the cup. 

A great example of this is Anaerobic fermentation since it’s something many of you have probably seen listed on our coffee bags! Anaerobic fermentation is the process in which complex sugars are broken down into gas or organic acids in an anoxic environment thus leaving behind desirable flavor and aromatic compounds as a byproduct. In the case of coffee, coffee cherries are placed in sealed tanks with water and carbon dioxide. Since oxygen is a byproduct of off gassing in fermentation there is typically a one-way valve that is used to help release oxygen from the fermentation tank yet doesn’t allow any to enter the tank from the outside world. This fermentation process is slower than aerobic fermentation, but allows producers to have more control over the end results of the fermentation because they have the ability to control variables like temperature and humidity. 

Outside of just innovations in fermentation we’re also seeing innovations in coffee cross breeding and cultivation coming out of Colombia as well. Colombia is well known for producing Caturra and Castillo, which are associated with sweet and well-balanced cups, yet different varietals are opening up new possibilities for a much broader spectrum of what we can expect from Colombian coffees. The specialty coffee industry has been fascinated by new and unique arabica varieties, as well as rare coffee species, for hundreds of years. A great example of this in recent years are species like Coffea eugenioides and Ombligon that have made a splash onto the specialty coffee scene through WCC and other coffee competitions. Ombligon was a relatively unknown Arabica varietal until it started showing up on the competition stage and it’s currently only found in Colombia! It has similar characteristics to Caturra, wider leaves, cherries that grow close together, branches that grow vertically, and have higher yields, and many Colombian coffee professionals agree that Ombligon could be a natural mutation of other varietals; like Pacamara, Bourbon, or even Castillo. 

With that being said, experimenting with coffee varieties can be risky and if they’re not planted in the right environment or given the right care, they can become weak or susceptible to diseases and pests. One of the most famed varietals for quality, Geisha or Gesha, are infamous for being difficult to grow but we wouldn’t have some of these unique varietals without extensive research and breeding programmes. One example of such programs is the World Coffee Research’s (WCR) Innovea Global Coffee Breeding Network. The WCR and its partners are working towards creating new and improved breeding populations by collecting data on the thousands of individual plants in the hopes of better combating growing climate concerns, diseases and other factors that affect coffee production.

The Little Bear of it all:

Now that you’ve been armed with more information it felt right to expand upon why we’re super excited to be working in and buying coffee from Colombia, outside of some of the aforementioned innovations. Here at Little Bear we’ve been very lucky to work with some truly amazing producers, exports and importers and Colombia is no expectation. We work very closely with Equation, a  Colombian exporting and importing company, that emphasizes not just quality but also on helping form long term partnerships with the producers we work with. At Equation coffee is much more than just a beverage. For them, it's a way to  connect people and has helped remind us that community is so much more than the city or country you’re in. Our goal is to build authentic relationships in the coffee industry, believing that strong ties are the foundation of a quality supply chain by fostering community at the forefront of that. 

Thank you for taking the time to read our latest LB Edu blog post about all things Colombian coffee! We know that some of the topics mentioned in this post could be entire entries on their own but we hope to expand upon some of the subtopics mentioned more in depth in future posts. If you have any questions about this post or just want to chat about all things coffee feel free to shoot us an email! We love getting to engage in coffee conversations and we hope we can be a resource to our customers.