Capital: Bogota
Area: 1,141,748 km2
Population: 48,663,285 [2016]
Language: Spanish
Currency: Peso
Annual Production: 13,500,000 bags
Coffee Producing Area: 900,000 hectares
Producing Regions: Nariño, Norte De Santander, Quindío, Santander, Cundinamarca, Risaralda, Cauca, Antioquia, Huila, Tolima, Caldas, Valle
Coffee Varietals: Caturra, Typico, Castillo, Colombia, Tabi, Mundo Nova
Terrain: Mountainous to semi desert
Altitude: 1200 to 2000 MASL
Soil: Highly fertile, volcanic origin
Harvest: October – March
Produced Grading Classifications:
Supremo: Supremo is the larger bean, retained by Screen 17.
Excelso: Excelso beans are the smaller sizes, ranging between Screen 12 and 16.5
Colombia is the world’s 3rd largest coffee producer, with coffee grown by over 500,000 producers farming in excess of 900,000 hectares. Colombian growers are small producers; the national average is 1.8 hectares per farm with only 5% of producers cultivating more than 5 hectares in coffee. Main growing areas were traditionally in the centre of the country; Antioquia, Santander and the Eje Cafetero or Coffee Axis. However, the coffee crop has also moved towards the southern areas such as Huila, Tolima, Cauca and Nariño. Colombian coffee can be described generally as three different profiles based on the areas grown.
So, depending on the productions location we have the following differences:
MAIN COFFEE AXIS
Floral aromas, with a pleasant balance between creamy body and nice acidity, well balanced coffee with fruity flavour, and slight herbal almost spicy notes.
SOUTHERN COFFEE
Floral aromatics, very complex and multidimensional cups, bright and juicy acidity, solid body, balanced with a clear, refined, sweet and delicate aftertaste.
NORTHERN COFFEES
Delicate and soft cups with an intense an exotic nutty aroma and flavour. Coffee with moderate to high body, subtle acidity and clean, long lasting aftertaste.