The Caffeinated Heart of Colombia!
 |
| Coffee, bean to bean |
On our way through Colombia in 2011, Nathan and I stopped to have a look at a working Colombian coffee farm. Salento is a small town in the middle of the 'La Zona Cafetera' between the towns of Pereira, Armenia and Manizales. Here we had a tour through Finca Don Eduardo. It was a great experience and really interesting.
 |
| Me picking the ripe, red beans from the trees. Bottom right is the mill which peels off the outer skin. |
The
finca (farm) grows the coffee trees from seed and you get to see the whole cultivation process they go through. But the most interesting part is how the coffee beans go from the bush to the pot. When the beans are ripe on the tree they turn red and are all picked by hand. They then go through that blue mill in the picture above which peels of the outer skin. The fresh beans inside are all gooey and to our surprise are actually sweet! It is not until they are roasted do they take on any sort of smell or taste resembling coffee as we know it. It is a dramatic transformation for the humble little bean. So we took our peeled and dried beans, brought the pan to a high, scolding temperature, and they were roasted. Within minutes the delightful smell of freshly raosted beans arose, and they were done.
 |
| The matriarch of the coffee clan, and the dried beans ready for roasting... |
The finca (farm) grows the coffee trees from seed and you get to see the whole cultivation process they go through. But the most interesting part is how the coffee beans go from the bush to the pot. When the beans are ripe on the tree they turn red and are all picked by hand. They then go through that blue mill in the picture above which peels of the outer skin. The fresh beans inside are all gooey and to our surprise are actually sweet! It is not until they are roasted do they take on any sort of smell or taste resembling coffee as we know it. It is a dramatic transformation for the humble little bean. So we took our peeled and dried beans, brought the pan to a high, scolding temperature, and they were roasted. Within minutes the delightful smell of freshly raosted beans arose, and they were done.
