Coffee Brewing In Colombia
It’s All About Location.

Coffee brewing in Santa Marta offers many ways for making this very enjoyable drink, the keys to great coffee are

Coffee Preparation

• Coffee
• Water
• Palm Trees
• Beach sand
• Free time
• Warm weather

But please, don't mix all the above up in a blender, with these ingredients added together though you are going to begin your day the proper way, where there is no rush, you have the whole day to enjoy at your leisure, bills under $1000.00 a month and summer never ends.

Coffee brewing in Colombia are two words that naturally go together. Colombia has a world reputation for the high quality coffee that is grown and harvested locally. Most of the production is the Arabica bean which is the superior grade of bean as compared to the Robusta, this bean is used as a filler in the cheaper brands of coffee, the producers mix in Arabica and Robusta to offer you coffee at a lower price, grown in lower elevations Robusta beans can withstand harsher weather, the lower the elevation the easier and cheaper the coffee is to harvest.

Having gone from drip coffee brewering to the french press and now to a mocha pot, which gives me the most consistent and flavorful cup and is the style commonly used in the Colombian household, it is a 3 piece metal pot with a bottom reservoir that you pour the water into, a filter basket that fits in the reservoir that holds the coffee and a top reservoir where the brewed coffee goes after the water is forced through the beans. This method requires a stove top of some kind or a source of heat as you can’t plug it in.

Use 2 tablespoons of ground coffee for each six (6) ounces of water as a guideline, adjust up or down depending on whether you like it weak or strong. With the mocha pot you don’t have to follow this rule, just fill the water to the line and the filter to the top, screw together and put on a medium heat, you will hear when the pot is filling.

The reason I like this style is that it’s easy and it always produces a very good cup, it has a line for the amount of water needed and fill the coffee basket to the top, so the brew is always consistent. Another factor is that it is easy to clean and you don’t have to keep buying filters, the coffee filter on this brewer is a perforated steel basket and it’s all metal so if you drop it it will survive, unlike the french press which is glass.

Coffee is a great part of Colombian culture, Caribbean history and cuisine, to make it well adds to your enjoyment of the superior Colombian lifestyle, sitting outside at 8 am in January as the temperature rises above 80˚ F ( 27˚ C ) just makes you feel good, no snow, no ice, or a bad weather commute, as you live on one quarter of what it would cost in North America, you now have more time to live and enjoy a swim or a leisurely stroll, no pressure, it’s kind of like an early retirement , just go back to the North America worker country when you need money or need some authority to whip you in line and to tell you what to do. There are certain personalities that can easily get caught up in the method of coffee brewing, that’s okay if you want to turn it into a bit of a hobby, it’s great to be known as “The Coffee Expert”, the one who knows the beans and the countries that produce good coffee, whether it has an aroma of this or a hint of that in it’s flavor. It’s all good fun.

Life is not quite as serious in a tropical country, unlike the northern countries that can always induce the primal (and very real) fear of freezing to death, which makes you want to work very hard to avoid this possibility, putting your acorns away like a squirrel to avoid this possibility. Colombia is not quite like that, enjoy the day, enjoy your time, it's not all about the big upgrade.

When I shop for coffee, say at a grocery store in Santa Marta I will usually buy just the regular variety on the shelf, ground, Sello Rojo, (Red Seal) looks to be the most popular variety and is a good tasting coffee to start the day. The price is about half of what you would pay in North America.

In the old days I used sugar in my coffee but now I drink it without cream or sugar, I did it because I added up 1 teaspoon of sugar which is 4.2 grams times 365 turns out to be 1.53 kilograms or almost a 5 pound bag of sugar in one year, and many people use twice or three times as much sugar as I used to, that’s a lot for your body to process. Now my coffee brewing has to be better than in the past as a poorly made cup now does not taste very good.

There are no Second Cup or Starbucks in Santa Marta or Colombia but there are independent coffee shops that will brew you a very good cup of coffee such as Juan Valdez in Santa Marta and El Rodadero which is a Colombian equivalent to Starbucks, the coffee is good, there are many styles and choices and the equipment is modern.

Coming up in Bogota, Colombia

June 2-5, 2011
The 2011 World Barista Championship
These are the top pro’s when it comes to great coffee.
Bogota is a great city of over 8,000,000 people and I know the Baristas will have a great time.

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