It only took 230 odd days…..

…but I’ve found some coffee and its growing on tree’s but there is some work to do first before I can drink it!

So its taken me the best part of a year to find some beans but its come at a good time, this morning I was on a plane out of Bogota – and it couldn’t come quick enough.  Bogota is a hole of a city its very grey, the weather changes every ten minutes and apart from one area the rest of it I can do without but it was a necessary evil.  The reason I’ve come back was to get my visa extended and now I’ve spoken to a few more people the same process could have been done back in Medellin saving a trip to this place but anyway for my troubles I’ve got a heavy dose of man flu and my will power is weak right now, very weak so for the first time in over a year I’ve booked into a hotel which serves breakfast in your room and has a mini bar but more important it has a huge, comfortable and clean bed with the softest sheets – one maybe two nights should be enough!

So I’ve landed near Salento or Zona Cafe as its known in tourist speak and what a lovely little place it is, on the 40 minute ride from the airport we pass endless rows of new coffee trees growing under makeshift green houses, the driver has taken a talking tablet and is giving me the low down on the area and why his coffee finca (farm) is the best one here. Then of course its got the usual Plaza with a big church where everyone hangs out watching everyone else hanging out watching each other – well wouldn’t be Colombia if it didn’t!

The next day I’m on the coffee finca getting the low down on the process of harvesting coffee, which if I be honest is not really rocket science  when the beans turn a deep orange or red colour you pick them after about a million days of picking little red beans you then de-husk them into a water tank where you wash off the sweet residue after this then you spread the beans out in the sun for a few days until they are bone dry.

Then at this point you either sell them off down in the local wholesaler or prep them for roasting, which involves another grinder to take the second skin off then you have some proper green beans to use.

Then the art begins.  You see up until this point all you have is green arabica beans, the beans can be different just like different vines are used for producing different wine – the only down side is that the large percentage of the beans that come out of Colombia is just classed as arabica beans which don’t get me wrong are some of

the best in the world and account for over 10% of  arabica coffee which is drunk around the world but you can’t tell the exact type of bean have you unless you go to a major finca which produces coffee in the tons, where here fincas are normally small family affairs.

I’ve been doing my research into roasting coffee and its art & science to get it right but its no secret that I was good at art and absolutely shite at science so I better get my act together and pay attention!

Get one large iron pot and get it red hot – throw in a load of  green beans and stir until you hear a first pop, then take it off the heat keep stirring while you listen to the pops and take in the smell of fresh roasted coffee!  That’s the process in the most basic form – the art is not burning the fuck out of the beans and the science is added when you want your morning brew to have a hit of cinnamon and with the sweetness of caramel, I’ll get the hang of not burning them first I think!

Seeing coffee from bean to cup – done!