Eje Cafetero, Colombia

A photo journey of the colorful coffee region

The Coffee Process

We toured a coffee plantation and learned all about the extensive process. Not yet a coffee snob, though moving on from my days buying bulk Costco coffee, I think I am becoming competent and hope to make you a nice cup should you ever come to visit us for the weekend. For a full explanation of the growing and harvesting process, take a look here.

The different stages of coffee beans, from the berry to the toasted bean.

Planted beans must have their ‘parchment’ shell in order to grow into a plant. You can’t just go planting your toasted beans, y’all.

Coffee plant sprouts.

Coffee plants produce berries, and are ripe and ready to pick when the berry turns red.

Berries pass through a de-berry machine, and come out naked little coffee beans. Sometimes they are rinsed (you can read about the difference here)

Coffee beans still encased in their parchment shells.

Beans are dried (left) and de-shelled of their parchments. At this point they are often shipped to roasters.

Once coffee is roasted, their freshness lasts for a limited time.

Grind those roasted beans up and choose your brewing method.

And if you ever visit Salento, go see Don Eduardo’s coffee farm. It is both informative and entertaining .

Even Jake loves a good cold-brew. They say Jesús Martín brews the best cup, and he is now the king of coffee in Salento. Supposedly his only export is to a little shop in State College, PA.

Jeep ‘Willys’ are the coffee region’s transport of choice, historically used for transporting coffee and produce. We used them as a taxi from village to village.

And hung off the back of one to get to Cocoro Valley. I didn’t take a photo of this because I was trying not to die.

Cocoro Valley & the Wax Palm

Cocoro Valley is famous for its Wax Palms, the highest growing palm tree in the world. It is a cloud forest, and has a lovely 5-hour hike twisting through it. On it I saw my first toucan and long-tailed sylph hummingbird. ❤

All images © 2018 Rachel Sims. All rights reserved.