Perched on private balconies, guests of La Palma Y El Tucan can awaken with dawn to gaze across Cundinamarca’s emerald green-stained hills lined in waxy-leafed Coffea arabica and frond-topped plantain trees. For travelers attracted to experiential drinks tourism, whether it’s to sip Sangiovese in the vineyards of Tuscany or sample whiskies in the Scottish Highlands, exploring the provenance of coffee is the next frontier. Colombia, a country almost synonymous with this vital daily beverage, is the place to do it.
Although coffee tourism is an emerging industry, enterprising growers and local officials recognize from wine, beer and distillery tourism, that it has the power to stir romance around a drink by building a bridge between the consumer and its producers. Coffee’s journey from farm to cup sees numerous handlers (e.g., grower, mill, roaster, barista), but most customers solely experience the retail end when grabbing a bag off a shelf or a cup from a coffeeshop. Just as drinking wine in situ amidst the vines after a cellar tour can be a transformative experience, so too is drawing in the scent of a fresh-brewed cup surrounded by blossoming typica trees after visiting a coffee mill.
Arabica, the species cultivated in Colombia (the other common species is robusta), grows throughout the country’s mountain regions. From the Caribbean tip of the north to the snow-capped peaks of the south, the Andes bisect Colombia, splitting it into three parallel cordilleras or ranges, all home to coffee farms. The type of cultivar grown (for reference, the wine grape species Vitis vinifera is to pinot noir, as arabica is to typica), range of soil compositions, and climatic conditions influenced by latitude and altitude (think terroir, the French term used to encapsulate how a wine’s distinctiveness is affected by its growing environment) greatly impact a coffee’s taste. Along with the growing and processing methods practiced by over 563,000 individual farmers, these factors yield an exponential number of flavor profiles.
For now, Colombia’s eje cafetero, or coffee triangle, just over 100 miles west by air from the capital of Bogotá, offers the best infrastructure for tourists. An intoxicating blend of verdant landscapes and local tradition create a singular experience worthy of its 2011 UNESCO recognition.
Follow this city to country trail to discover why Colombia is the perfect place for a first-time foray into coffee travel.
City sips
Most international visitors arrive in the capital, Bogotá, a growing metropolis ringed in mountains, perched high in the Andes at 8,660 feet above sea level (that’s nearly 3,000 feet higher than Denver). The city of eternal fall — residents don sweaters and leather boots year-round and swear they love it — is undergoing a third-wave coffee surge. Despite Colombia’s status as the leading producer of arabica beans in the world, the good stuff was always sold abroad. Coffee drinkers would have better luck finding a fine Huila or Nariño (both regions) in New York than they would locally, where they were grown. Consequently, Colombians took to drinking tinto, the cheap, leftover dregs unfit for export. In recent years, however, a handful of native coffee lovers have begun campaigning to transform the drinking habits of a nation by opening cafes dedicated solely to higher quality Colombian caffeine.
Lodging
Two boutique hotels vie for the title of hippest design property: The Click Clack Hotel and the B.O.G. Hotel. Both are centrally located for exploring the city’s best cafes (and, incidentally, nightlife). The Click Clack has a younger vibe, and a popular (with both locals and tourists) top floor bar offering good burgers and stunning views of the city; the swankier, serene B.O.G. has a lower level spa, gym and petite but functional rooftop pool.
Cafes and roasters
Juan Valdez Origens Café
The “Origens” concept store expands on the original Juan Valdez café brand by showcasing Colombia’s regional coffees, as well as distinct micro-lots from individual farmers. You may be familiar with Juan Valdez cafes in New York or Miami, but these concept stores expand on their scope and size. Baristas are trained on a range of brewing methods (v-60, syphon, chemex) which they match to the coffees. The Zona G shop’s beautiful, three-floor interior draws the outdoors in with a vertical, cascading plant wall (a common design element found throughout Bogotá), and other organic materials like Guadua, a native bamboo that grows abundantly in coffee country.
Juan Valdez Café Orígenes (Zona G) – Cll 70 # 6 – 09, Bogotá, 571- 217 7501, juanvaldezcafe.com
Amor Perfecto
Perhaps the best known specialty coffee brand, Amor Perfecto was created in 1997 by a self-taught roaster who rued the city’s lack of barista culture. Founder Luis Fernando Velez rose from an entrepreneurial neophyte who struggled to enter world barista competitions so as to learn directly from experts, to eventually fostering six national champs from his growing enterprise. Located in the trendy Chapinero neighborhood, his sole café, training lab and roastery employs the country’s best shot-pullers. He only sells Colombian coffee sourced directly from local growers.
Cra. 4 #66-46, Bogotá, 571-248-5796, amorperfectocafe.net
Catación Pública
The vibe is street-school meets science lab at founder Jaime Duque’s café and roastery. Formerly an agricultural engineer for Colombia’s Coffee Growers Federation, Duque succeeds in conveying coffee’s underlying concepts to customers with direct simplicity. The long, narrow shop offers a range of preparation methods to brew Duque’s rotating line-up of Colombian coffees. He buys from around the country, but when describing his sources, promotes the particular grower’s estate over the region.
Calle 120 A # 3 A – 47 Usaquén, Bogotá, 571-702 4943, catacionpublica.co
Azahar
Establishing traceability by sourcing single origin coffees directly from small growers and coops, is the focus at this café housed in a repurposed shipping container (the kind used to export Colombia’s best beans). Co-founders Tyler Youngblood and Keith Schuman hope to develop the local market enough to support opening a few more locations in the next three years. Azahar (named after the coffee blossom) is helmed by a youthful staff adept at even the most esoteric of brewing devices like the Silverton.
Carrera 14 # 93A-48, Bogotá, 571-703-4799, azaharcoffee.com
Café Devotion
Despite its location inside the Hilton, Café Devotion’s ambiance transports customers into a sepia-toned print of an early 20th-century apothecary. Owner Steven Sutton, who opened a sister café in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, was born in Colombia but spent many of his formative years in the States. After leaving the music industry for coffee, he returned to Colombia to hunt down, often in dangerous regions, the finest suppliers. Sutton has created a 400-farm strong purchasing network that allows him a first pass at beans before they are mixed into untraceable piles, their origins lost forever. He stocks 17 specialty coffees brewed with five different methods.
Carrera 7 #72-41, Bogotá, (inside the Hilton Hotel, first floor), 571-600-6100, cafedevotion.com
Libertario Coffee Roasters
This new café and roastery will open in the “Zona G” neighborhood in October 2015. The husband-and-wife duo, also behind the groundbreaking coffee farm La Palma El Tucan (further details below), will debut this shop to showcase their exotic estate varietals (think: Colombian gesha). They’ve already hired an American barista from PT’s Coffee in Kansas.
Calle 71 #5-34, Bogotá, next to the Artisan D.C. Hotel, follow their progress on Instagram @libertariocoffee
Coffee country outside of Bogotá
La Palma Y El Tucan
Travelers who don’t have time for a trip to the triangle, or prefer to visit one of the country’s most innovative coffee farms, will soon be able to book a cabin at La Palma Y El Tucan a mere 90-minutes (much of it due to traffic) outside of Bogotá in the Cundinamarca department.
The young couple behind the brand left careers in other industries to dedicate themselves to sourcing and growing specialty grade Colombian coffee, with an emphasis on matching exotic cultivars (e.g., gesha and sidra) to sites, and fermentation techniques to coffees. Along with Q Grader and project manager Carlos Arevalo, the team will host coffee disciples in 10 wooden cabins or “ecohabs,” currently under construction on their farm. The cabins are tucked into hillside fields; each one will have a brew bar featuring house beans. In addition to the professional coffee lab, facilities will expand to include a training center and a club house for guests to gather and enjoy meals. The cabins open to consumer geeks in March of 2016. Tentative pricing will be $200 USD per night, inclusive of meals — and coffee, of course.
The Coffee Triangle (or Zona Cafetera, Coffee Axis or Eje Cafetero)
Visitors can access the coffee triangle via three possible points of entry: Armenia, the capital of the Quindio department; Pereira, the capital of Risaralda; or Manizales, the capital of Caldas. These three departments or states make up the 550-square-mile, UNESCO-designated Coffee Cultural Landscape. The geographical position of the trio of cities gives rise to the moniker “coffee triangle,” the furthest distance being two hours between Armenia and Manizales.
Not long after exiting the airport (any of them), the beauty of the region begins to reveals itself. Man-made terraces follow the contours of the lush, dramatic topography. The area is blessedly devoid of Western influence – no Subway sandwich shops or McDonald’s line the highways or villages. Rather, roadside parillas grill chorizo sausages and corn arepas, served with slices of fresh, tangy cheese. The historic towns, painted in vivid primary and pastel colors, mix native materials with Spanish colonial style. You’ll find local men sipping a tinto in the morning or a cerveza at night, dressed in traditional garb. While “Juan Valdez” is a fictional character created by the National Federation of Coffee Growers (FNC) to market Colombian coffee, his ensemble — a cotton poncho, woven hat and multi-pocketed leather field bag — honestly reflects the sartorial vernacular of farmers still worn in earnest today.
Lodging
Tourists should avoid sleeping in the cities; they are relatively drab, and mostly devoid of the countryside and cultural charms of the region. Also, while the villages of Salento and Filandia appeal for day trips, accommodations are sparse, and lean towards simple backpacker and hostel properties. The best beds are found in historic haciendas converted into boutique hotels.
Hacienda San Jose sits nestled on the periphery of dense vegetation that muffles all but the sound of chirping birds. New management expanded the covered, outdoor restaurant and bar, and retooled the menu to blend local ingredients into global dishes. Rooms retain the old-fashioned sensibility of the property’s past, with details like tin bedside water pitchers, and walls adorned with vintage photos and horseback riding paraphernalia.
Km 4 Vía Cerritos Pereira, Input 16 Chain El Tigre, Pereira – Colombia, +57 (6) 313-2612, haciendahotelsanjose.com
Hacienda Venecia
Visitors looking for an immersion experience on a working coffee farm should book a room at this century-old property close to Manizales. Also set within a gorgeous landscape of coffee fields, trickling rivers and buzzing bird life (Colombia boasts over 1,880 species), Venecia offers three types of accommodation, including a guest house and hostel. Opt for the original two-story, red-framed main house, which comes equipped with hammocks and a pool for lounging. Guests can walk miles of trails (outlined on a map received at check-in), horseback ride through the nearby hills, visit a local market and tour the brand’s coffee mill.
Vereda “El Rosario”, 170009 Manizales, Caldas, 320-636-5719, coffee.haciendavenecia.com
Visit Salento and Filandia
To journey through the region’s candy-colored towns of Salento and Filandia, is to travel two centuries back in time. One story explains Salento’s colors as markers of political support by property owners. Now, the preserved bahareque architecture lures both Colombians and foreigners looking for authentic travel experiences. Salento feels more discovered than Filandia due to the hippie and backpacker contingent, but it offers more tourist resources, shops, restaurants and bars, as a result. Café Jesus Martin, a local family business and the region’s best coffee brand, has a location near their roastery in Salento.
CRA 6 # 6 -14, close to the main square, +57 – 759 -3282, cafejesusmartin.com
Visit coffee farms
Hacienda Venecia offers coffee tours for both guests and non-guests. A pleasurable way to visit Finca El Ocaso, an organic farm outside of Salento, is to walk through the scenic countryside down a rapidly-descending road (grab a Willys Jeep, the local form of public transportation, back up). Tours run every 90 minutes and alternate between Spanish and English. Visitors start off in the fields with a basket to hone their picking skills; after, they are shepherded to the mill to see where the fruit of their labor would be processed, fermented, washed and dried. The tour culminates with a brewing demo yielding steaming cups of coffee for everyone.
Hike the Valle de Cocora
Those who have made it as far as the coffee triangle would be remiss not to carve out time to visit the stunning cloud forest Valle de Cocora (Cocora Valley), located in Quindio. Arrange transport or a tour through lodging. Alternatively, travelers can swing by Salento’s main square in the morning to share the 20-minute ride in a Willys Jeep. The park is free, and while some groups pay to ride horses, hikers who devote half a day to tackle the strenuous trail to the top (follow the path to “La Montana”), are rewarded with resplendent views into the misty valley below. Home to the world’s tallest wax palms, reaching upwards of 60 meters in height, the combination of slender, towering trees and cows on terraced pastureland, evokes Jurassic Park set in a mash-up of Hawaii and the Austrian Alps.
Before you leave
For a final pour over before the flight home, travelers can score a good, if expensive, cup from the airport’s newest brew bar, Xue Café. This sleek, minimalist coffee boutique offers a sit-down experience and beans to go. For those who want their drink to go, the baristas might respond with a frown, but they will comply. After all, Colombia has taught us coffee should be savored, not rushed, except when there’s a plane to catch. Xue Café is located in the beginning of the international duty free area of Bogotá’s El Dorado Airport.
Travel tips
Safety and cabs
Much of the country has turned the corner on FARC-fueled unrest and street crime, both of which now inhabit remote, countryside corners. Locals and your hotel concierge will still advise you not to walk alone at night in Bogotá, and to take pre-ordered cabs rather than hail them off the street. There are also options to order cars through smartphone apps. In addition to Uber, the free, easy-to-use, secure app Tappsi logs your driver and your ride data. It’s available for both iPhone and Android.
Flights
Always double-check the departure airport when flying domestically out of Bogotá. Departure information may read “El Dorado Airport, Terminal 2.” Terminal 2, used for domestic flights and also known as “Puente Aereo” is not connected to Terminal 1, and requires a two-minute cab drive or a free, 15-minute shuttle bus ride, if, mistakenly, you get dropped off at the international airport instead. Not all cab drivers understand terminal 2 is a separate airport. Fly either Avianca (for dramatically cheaper fares, book on the English language Colombian site, avianca.com) or discount airline Viva Colombia (cheap, but they charge for everything); both cover the three primary cities of the coffee triangle.
Car rental v. driver
Triangle tourists can rent a car at either the airports or in the cities, and self-drive the well-paved highways between points of interest. However, Colombian drivers come cheap and GPS doesn’t work too well on many of the country roads, so consider indulging in such a luxury for a few days. Arrange all airport transfers in advance through lodging (e-mail and telephone requests are fine), and day trips upon arrival. Transfers are common so prices are generally set.
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