Colombian coffee has long been known as "green gold," famed for its rich, full-bodied character reminiscent of dark chocolate. As the specialty coffee wave has advanced, this South American producer has revealed a more varied profile of fruity sweetness and floral aromas. This article systematically breaks down the terroir differences and flavor characteristics of Colombia's three major regions—north, central, and south—and focuses on the Huila everyday-drinker beans and the Cauca Finca El Paraiso Cherry coffee beans selected by Front Street Coffee. From regional grades to varieties and processing methods, from roasting philosophy to brewing parameters, we take you through the diverse charm of Colombian coffee, and how Finca El Paraiso's owner Diego Samuel turned a family estate into an award-winning specialty benchmark.
Colombia shares the same passionate South American soil, and its coffee is crowned with the beautiful title of "green gold." Its intense dark chocolate notes and thick, full body have won Colombian coffee the favor of countless generations of coffee lovers.
As the fourth wave of specialty coffee sweeps in, Colombian coffee has also taken the stage in a brand-new guise. On the bean shelves of Front Street Coffee are displayed numerous Colombian coffee beans, whose rich fruity sweet-and-tart character not only leaves seasoned coffee enthusiasts marveling, but also draws in many newcomers just starting out.
Colombia lies in northwestern South America, and its terrain can be broadly divided into the mountainous west and the Orinoco and Amazon plains in the east. The country is administratively divided into 32 departments, 20 of which grow coffee. Complex topography combined with significant differences in climate and soil conditions gives rise to the kaleidoscopic flavor expressions of Colombian coffee. Most of these coffee-growing regions are distributed on both sides of the western Andes, and can be roughly grouped into three major blocks: north, central, and south.
The northern region covers La Guajira, Magdalena, Cesar, and other departments. The growing conditions here are similar to those of Central America, with lower latitude and higher temperatures, and coffee plants more prone to direct sunlight, so the north tends to favor shade-grown methods. Northern coffees show softer acidity, with both aroma and body being more pronounced.
The central region includes Antioquia, Valle del Cauca, Tolima, and Quindío, among others. This is the core zone with Colombia's largest coffee production, home to a great many coffee-growing areas, and also a more traditional coffee-producing region of the country.
The southern region, meanwhile, includes growing departments such as Cauca, Huila, and Nariño. Because it is closer to the equator and coffee is mostly grown in high-altitude mountains, southern coffees perform even better in quality, with not only clear, bright acidity but also distinctive floral and fruity aromas. For this reason, coffees from the southern region have captured the hearts of many coffee lovers.
Front Street Coffee selects coffee beans from the Huila region as the representative Colombian product in its everyday-drinker series. These beans use the washed processing method; because excess sugars in the skin, pulp, and mucilage do not take part in the final drying process, the truest terroir characteristics of Colombian Huila are fully revealed. When roasting this everyday-drinker Huila, Front Street Coffee uses a medium-dark roast to highlight the classic dark chocolate flavor and full body. In Front Street's cupping, one tastes intense dark chocolate flavor, clear and rounded citric acidity, and caramel-like sweetness.
Since the turn of the millennium, coffee lovers are no longer satisfied with just intense chocolate flavor and rich body. As roasting techniques have continually improved, roast levels of coffee beans have gradually grown lighter, allowing the rich fruity sweet-and-tart notes and floral aromas in coffee to be presented to people. Thus coffee fans' preferences have also shifted from the rich, full-bodied style to today's bright, fruit-bomb-like coffees.
On the bean list blackboard of Front Street Coffee, every classic producing country has its own dedicated section, and Colombia is no exception. Among the many Colombian coffees on Front Street Coffee's bean list, one coffee from Finca El Paraiso, with its unique flavor, has made many veteran coffee connoisseurs lament that they can no longer recognize Colombian coffee as it once was, and has also astonished newcomers to specialty coffee that coffee could taste like this.
Front Street Coffee carries a wide variety of coffee beans, but its Colombian Finca El Paraiso coffee beans have drawn much attention because they were once included in Luckin Coffee's SOE series.
The Finca El Paraiso coffee beans that Front Street has brought in come from the renowned Cauca region, a coffee region certified as a Colombian designation of origin, with an average growing altitude of over 1,700 meters. Cauca has a large temperature difference between day and night; the low nighttime temperatures and higher altitude slow the ripening of the coffee fruit, giving it more time to absorb nutrients from the soil, which also gives Front Street Coffee's Colombian Cherry coffee beans an edge in sweet-and-tart character.
Front Street Coffee Colombian Finca El Paraiso Cherry Coffee Beans
Region: Cauca, Colombia
Farm: Finca El Paraiso
Altitude: 2,050 meters
Variety: Castillo
Processing method: Double anaerobic washed
Finca El Paraiso has risen to fame in recent years, and this impressive achievement is inseparable from farm owner Diego Samuel. Diego studied coffee-related knowledge during university and began taking over and running Finca El Paraiso in 2008. After years of painstaking management, Diego transformed what was originally a small family estate, and in 2015 won first place in a local coffee cupping competition.
Thereafter, Diego's belief in cultivation and innovation grew ever firmer, as he devoted himself to improving and stabilizing the farm's coffee quality while leading the estate to multiple awards. Today, Finca El Paraiso grows varieties such as Bourbon, Laurina, Geisha, and Castillo, and is still planning to try even more different varieties.
When roasting this Finca El Paraiso Cherry coffee, Front Street Coffee's roasters use a medium roast to preserve its unique sweet-and-tart character.
The brewing parameters are as follows:
Dripper: Hario V60
Water temperature: 90°C
Dose: 15 grams
Coffee-to-water ratio: 1:15
Grind size: 80% passing a Chinese standard No. 20 sieve
After coffee beans are roasted, they contain plenty of carbon dioxide gas, which when in contact with water hinders water from entering the internal structure to draw out flavor compounds, so Front Street recommends blooming during brewing. The coffee beans shipped by Front Street are freshly roasted within 5 days; after logistics transport, by the time they reach you they have gone through a 4-to-7-day resting period and are right at their peak flavor window. However, as time passes, carbon dioxide and flavor compounds gradually dissipate, and the coffee's flavor becomes rounder and fuller.
As for bloom duration, Front Street generally recommends 30 seconds. But exactly how to adjust depends on the beans' resting state and the degree of expansion during the bloom. If degassing is vigorous and still active at 30 seconds, it can be appropriately extended.
Pour 30 grams of hot water and bloom for 30 seconds, then pour in a thin stream from the center point while slowly circling to 125 grams; when the water level in the dripper drops to just about to expose the coffee bed, continue circling and pouring to 225 grams, for a total extraction time of about 2 minutes.
After brewing, Front Street's Finca El Paraiso Cherry has an obvious and unique aroma of Thai basil and mugwort on entry, with a soft strawberry sweet-and-tart finish, and is well balanced overall.
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The above content is compiled by CoffeeHunters, a coffee news website.
