Coffee 101

I have to admit that Coffee & I, well we´ve had a rollercoaster of a relationship. Strangely enough, we only started seeing eachother in China in 2000 when for all the tea in China I couldn´t find any I liked and figuratively dipped my toe into the world of coffee instead. Years later I learned that my personality doesn't blend well with caffeine. I love that so many of your probably roll your eyes, thinking you could have told me that WAY sooner.  

Anyways, the decaffeination process has once again brought us together and being in Colombia I was interested in how the bean; that is responsible for starting most of our days, is grown etc.  Luckily Salento is in the coffee area of Colombia so a group of us decided to take the tour. My expectations for the tour were pretty low and I was pleasantly impressed with all that we learned and had the chance to see first hand.

The photo to the left is a summary of all the stages but I'll elaborate further a little later in this post.
Allow me to first pass on some of my newly gained 'general' knowledge.
1. There are two varieties of beans... Arabia = high flavour but low caffeine at 2/3 of the world's bean production and Robusta = the high caffeine low flavour remaining 1/3.
2. Three top producers in order of volume Brazil, Vietnam, Colombia.
3. To decaffienate coffee the best way roast the beans over charcoal. Each time you do this 15% of the caffeine is removed so repeat as required.

Impressed yet? Didn't think so... you are a tough crowd (you take after me a little in that way) Okay... here let me try again.

After the hostel owner (a British gent who rambled a little but was full of info once he got warmed up) gave us the one hour english rundown on coffee plantations he sent us down to his farm to see it all first hand.

Obviously the process starts with a bean (all with the intention of ending with many of course)... and moves to become two little leaves in a few weeks. A plant takes 3 years to deliver any 'fruit' at which time beautiful plump 'cherries' are harvested by hand in either of the two annual rainy seasons and then a machine is used to 'pop the cherries' exposing the two beans inside the red skins.

The beans are soaked for up to 72hrs to remove the sugars (and any that float are separated for domestic sale as they are considered lower quality beans... which is why it is so hard to get a good coffee in a country that produces so much for the rest of the globe!), then it is off to the metal roof to dry in the sun before being sold based on weight.

The farm lead went so far as to take a frying pan full of beans off the drying roof, remove the second skins in the grinder with some help from Roma and myself, roast them on the stove and once again run them through the grinder (more finely this time) to brew some 'home grown' coffee on the spot.

Take that Starbucks!

Understandably the coffee wasn't decaf so I only sipped a small amount but overall it was a wonderfully educational and 'hands on' trip down coffee lane.
Gold star Salento.

The farm also produces fruit like lulo (similar in flavour to lemon), mora (blackberry), bananas and pineapples as well as tobacco and some pretty stunning flowers. If anyone ever offers you a lulo and mora fresh jugo... go for it and thank me later.

Tonight we leave for Medellin. The trip takes 7hrs so could be done during the day but after a week in Colombia all but two days have been spent on a bus, for some duration of time, and that just gets OLD. Better to take a night bus and not lose so much daylight.

We'll arrive at about 3am and pray that our chosen hostel will be open and have available beds!

Cross your fingers!
xo
b