Colombian coffee is often considered one of the main players on the world coffee scene. Why? This is because Colombia is able to produce the third part of the world after Brazil being the first and Vietnam occupying the second place, but there are things that one might not expect to hear about this amazing country, so take a look and tell me if i was right (even if you are colombian and know this culture).
1. We are not Italian but we have our own coffee drinks
Really it's very common to see the regular population coming off the streets ordering a Tinto or maybe a Perico, the former is taken as an Americano from a fancy espresso machine and prepared with artisanal methods, the latter drink is our very own cappuccino with regular milk and so much sugar. If you want to explore the history of our coffee drinks, you should think of a Campesino (today is a coffee producer) which is a mix between a Tinto and Panela (brown sugar from Colombia and the Caribbean) added to instead of regular sugar.
2. We are part of the trendy "third wave" of coffee
Arm tattoos, a long beard and a leather apron? Yeah ! he is a barista who is the person who carefully prepared that coffee you get at your favorite coffee shop next to the corner. This guy and the rest of the hashtags (#coffeefarmers, #coffeehunters, #coffee lover, #coffeesnub, #coffeethenexist, #butfirstcoffee, etc.) are part of what people see as a movement to produce high quality and consider coffee as an artisanal food like wine rather than a commodity.
Okey, Colombia is no exception, we have about 300 specialty coffee shops scattered around the main cities of the country, we have a latte art championship, production festivals and many "gringos" in the coffee plantations.
3. We also drink "crappy" coffee
Over the years, we are well known as the third largest producer on this planet after Brazil and Thailand, but that does not mean that we consume good coffee in the country. Unfortunately, most of the special and high quality coffee was exported to places like USA, Europe and Asia and we drink the coffee with defects that people usually called it Pasilla.
Thanks