Coffee tasting like no other in Colombia

You can’t come to coffee country without taking part in a real tasting of the new « black gold », produced by one of the region’s finest coffee farms. Today, we’re invited to the San Carlos Lodge – a beautiful hotel nestled between hills of coffee trees – for a unique coffee tasting experience, but not just any coffee tasting!

Dégustation de café avec Juan et Alejandro

Coffee in Columbia

Juan and Alejandro welcome us for an afternoon discovering the best ways to prepare coffee in Colombia. All our senses are awakened! Are you ready?

Follow us this way! After taking our seats around a large table, we begin with a short lecture on the history of coffee in Colombia. Did you know that

Colombia is the world’s 3rd largest coffee producer, and produces only Arabica coffee (Robusta being of lesser quality);
There are two harvest periods a year, and the beans are harvested exclusively by hand on hilly plantations.

The coffee tasting

Then comes the first part of the tasting, where we taste two different coffees: one bought in a supermarket and the other from the best finca in the region. We observe their appearance, their color, we smell them and finally we drink them. They may have been prepared in the same way, but the taste is very different and I’ll let you guess which is better.

Olfactory discovery

We go through a purely olfactory part to develop our sense of smell! Different scents are offered to us blind, and we have to guess the origin of the coffee with the help of a scent chart. The rest of the tasting session takes on the character of a little chemist!

Molecular coffee

We call this molecular coffee. The coffee is prepared using a siphon, then mixed with cold liquid nitrogen (or nitrogen) to preserve all its flavors. What an explosion in the mouth! You get the texture of an Italian espresso without the bitterness. The whole team is won over!

Coffee honey

Another original way of tasting coffee is with coffee honey (a reduction of coffee sweetened with panela). And when combined with gin and tonic, it makes an explosive cocktail! Finally, how could we not end this afternoon with a splash of Viejo de Caldas rum, produced in the region, to accompany this tasting? No, after this, you’ll never be able to drink your coffee in the same way again! We’re convinced, aren’t you?