“Life’s too short for bad coffee”
Coffee indeed is something many of us take for granted, part of the daily routine, we reach out subconsciously for a our empty travel mugs bearing names of far-flung destinations in the morning, bleary-eyed, almost on auto-pilot, keen to recover from the night before and its animated laughs, drinks and dancing.
And so it was here, in the lush Colombian countryside, on a stay in just beautiful sun-kissed surroundings, with the palm trees poking their heads above the swimming pool, surrounded by coffee plants.
Having made the journey up from Salento and the Cocora Valley, our minibus wound its way off the main road into the valley below, past shacks selling drinks, local cafes, and sheer drops into the green hillsides below. When we pulled up at the Coffee Estancia, the sights were amazing, on the one side the hacienda with pool, hammock and palms dotting the tree lined landscape – on the other rows of coffee plants we were about to find out so much about before tasting their produce.
Our adventure began at the architecturally parallel rows of plants, where we learned about the initial stages of coffee cultivation. The tour took us through a beautiful Arabica coffee plantation grown in the shade, showcasing the diverse coffee varieties Colombia is famous for. And many of us took some home.
So why not follow suit…
See how coffee beans are grown, harvested, processed, dried, roasted, and ground, everything on site in this beautiful countryside
Sample different types of coffee and learn how to prepare it, it was interesting to try it black and in it’s original form, compared to the many concoctions we try in the UK, this was the real deal!
Enjoy the beautiful surroundings of sloping green hills and valleys, and cool down by the pool with a local beer…
And after the cool down? We showered and got ready for fantastic home cooked food, and plenty of it – after which it was the perfect slow-down, playing cards, chatting, and laughing late into the night. It felt very iconic.
Recommended? Definitely, everywhere we visited in Colombia was so different from the previous places, and this was a welcome change of pace too.
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