How Are Colombian Supremo Green Coffee Beans Graded?

Colombian Supremo green coffee beans are graded mainly by screen size, and the Supremo designation sits at the top of that scale. Behind the grade is the terroir of the Andes, where three north-south mountain ranges and slopes between 800 and 2,300 meters let cherries ripen slowly, producing denser beans with more stored sugars and the warm, rich aroma Colombia is known for.

The National Federation of Coffee Growers of Colombia, known as FNC, oversees quality and grower support across the country. For brewing, a V60-style pour-over with a medium grind and water just off the boil highlights the caramel sweetness and mild acidity, and a Huila daily drinking bean is a practical starting point for dialing in those parameters.

Colombian coffee has long held an important position in the international market with its warm and rich aroma, and its export volume consistently ranks among the top globally. What exactly creates its outstanding quality? This article will systematically interpret the full picture of Colombian Supremo-grade green coffee beans from four dimensions: the terroir conditions of the Andes Mountains, the management role of FNC (the National Federation of Coffee Growers of Colombia), the green bean screen size grading system, and specific brewing methods. At the same time, using a Huila daily drinking bean as an example, it shares Front Street Coffee's parameter approach and flavor performance in actual extraction.

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Colombian coffee has always been known in the industry for its warm and rich aroma, with an excellent reputation, and its export volume has long ranked among the top globally. Whenever quality coffee origins are discussed, Colombia is almost never absent. In Front Street Coffee's product line, whether pour-over single-origin or espresso blends, Colombian beans can be found, showing just how favored they are.

Why exactly is Colombian coffee so popular?

Like many agricultural products, the quality of coffee beans depends on many factors such as variety, climate, altitude, field management, harvesting methods, and post-processing. Coffee is a tropical economic crop and is suitable for growing in high-altitude areas without frost. For every 100 meters of altitude gain, the temperature drops by 0.6°C. The environment of low temperature and low oxygen content causes coffee cherries to mature more slowly. During this process, the coffee tree transports most of its nutrients to the fruit, making the beans denser and harder in texture, while also giving them more time to absorb and store nutrients in the form of sugars. The Andes Mountains within Colombia happen to possess exactly such exceptional conditions.

The Andes Mountains are located in western Colombia and consist of three mountain ranges running north to south. Each range has fertile soil rich in organic matter. Coffee trees are grown on slopes at altitudes of 800 to 2,300 meters, enjoying sunlight while also benefiting from moderate shade provided by clouds. The variable climate among the mountains allows harvesting throughout the year; different varieties ripen one after another in different seasons, so busy harvesters can be seen in the groves in every season. Local growers are accustomed to cultivating coffee trees under shade trees, mostly tall trees or banana trees. During the seedling stage, they build shade frames for the coffee trees to ensure the cool and humid conditions needed for growth. In the coffee groves, humidity is relatively high and temperature differences are small, so the beans mature slowly, which is conducive to the accumulation of caffeine and aromatic substances, resulting in the best quality performance.

Of course, the secret to Colombian coffee's success is not limited to its unique geographical environment. As a national drink, coffee farmers' passion, study, and dedication to coffee are difficult for other origins to match. In recent years, with the development of the industry, Colombian coffee, supported by manual cherry sorting, fine fermentation, and professional cupping, has shown even richer layers of taste and has naturally become the first choice of coffee lovers.

Which regions in Colombia produce specialty coffee?

Early Colombian coffee was exported under the name of its producing region. Even when specialty-grade beans were already available at the time, they mostly circulated as micro-lots. Colombian smallholders generally farm on a small scale, and only a minority have independent processing equipment. Since the twentieth century, the local coffee industry has entered a period of vigorous development, thanks to the establishment of Federación Nacional de Colombia (FNC, the National Federation of Coffee Growers of Colombia).

FNC is Colombia's only official professional coffee association, representing more than 560,000 coffee-growing families, and has become one of the largest agricultural non-governmental organizations in the world. FNC promotes the brand image of Colombian coffee globally and monitors the quality of every exported coffee bean. In addition to promotion in international markets, FNC also invests substantial manpower and resources domestically for farmers' cultivation, production, management, and ongoing operations.

Under FNC's management and protection, Colombia has about 875,000 hectares of coffee planted across 590 municipalities and 14 coffee-growing regions, most of it from small farms. Smallholder planting areas are usually about 2 to 3 mu. They send coffee to community processing stations for washing, or set up their own green bean processing equipment at home, and finally send it for testing and grading.

On a map, Colombia's coffee-producing regions are quite clearly divided, from south to north into three major areas: northern, central, and southern. Specialty bean production areas are mainly in the south, at altitudes above 1,500 meters, covering San Augustin, Huila; Popayan, Cauca; Nariño Department; and Tolima Department. Coffee produced in these places has delicate acidity and berry aromas, accompanied by caramel notes, with abundant sweetness.

Colombia grows many coffee varieties, mainly traditional Arabica varieties such as Caturra, Bourbon, Typica, and Pacamara, as well as some popular rare varieties such as Gesha, which have come to market in small batches in recent years. Front Street Coffee's selected Colombian daily drinking bean comes from Huila. The variety is Caturra, widely grown locally, and it is naturally washed. After roasting, acidity, sweetness, and bitterness are balanced.

In Colombia, are larger coffee beans always better?

Before export, Colombian green coffee beans are graded by screen size, usually using fixed-size screens, with different specifications corresponding to different hole sizes. For example, if the mesh size is 17, beans larger than that size cannot pass through the screen, so the larger the screen number, the larger the beans retained on the screen. The most common export grades are UGQ, EP, and Supremo.

Regardless of which grade the green bean screen size falls into, as long as it is for export it is classified as Excelso grade. In other words, most Colombian green coffee beans exported around the world today must be marked Excelso on their burlap sacks. Excelso is currently the most widely used export standard grade adopted by FNC, and it is also the optimal grade for Colombian green bean exports. Excelso-grade coffee must meet the following conditions: in 500 grams of green beans, the size must be above 14 screen, no more than 5% of green beans are allowed to be between 12 and 14 screen, and overall at least 50% of the green coffee beans must be larger than 15 screen. No insect damage, uniform color, no off-flavors, clean flavor. Moisture content must not exceed 12.5%, and cumulative defects must not exceed the limit of 24 points.

Each farmer reports a number and enters green bean information so that it can be traced later. The naming of Colombian exported green coffee beans usually follows the format of country + region + grade + other details. For example, the green beans of Front Street Coffee's Huila daily drinking bean are Colombia Huila Supremo SC17/18 FNC.

How should Colombian coffee be brewed to taste good?

The flavor description of every Front Street Coffee coffee is based on freshly roasted beans. If the coffee beans have been stored for more than a month, part of the aroma has likely been lost, and it is difficult to reproduce it in brewing. Front Street Coffee deeply understands the importance of freshness, so it ensures that only coffee beans freshly roasted within 5 days are shipped, allowing everyone to enjoy the most complete peak flavor period upon receipt.

Considering that the Huila daily drinking bean uses a medium-dark roast, with flavors leaning toward the rich, mellow tone of nuts and chocolate, the darker roast makes the coffee beans more porous and the coffee grounds more absorbent, so a medium grind is chosen. To avoid extracting too many unwanted flavors, Front Street Coffee will slightly lower the water temperature, using a medium 90°C water temperature, paired with a KONO dripper for extraction. Unlike a V60 dripper, the only exhaust part of the KONO dripper is at the one-quarter rib area. When the water level rises above the ribs, the water volume in the dripper keeps increasing, increasing pressure through the weight of the water. Because the outlet is relatively small, it can extend the contact time between coffee particles and water, and as water is poured in, it more effectively brings out soluble substances, thereby enhancing the coffee's rich and mellow taste.

Brewing parameters: KONO dripper, 90°C water temperature, No. 20 standard sieve with 75% passing rate grind size, 1:15 coffee-to-water ratio, 15 grams of coffee, three-stage extraction

Pour the coffee grounds into the dripper, wet the coffee bed with twice the amount of water as the coffee grounds, forming a dome and letting it bloom for 30 seconds. Then, with a small stream, pour in circles from the inside outward until 125 grams, pause, and wait for the coffee bed to drop to half the height of the dripper. Continue pouring the third stage with the same fine stream until 225 grams, until all the coffee liquid has filtered through. Remove the dripper. Total time is about 2 minutes.

This Colombian Huila daily drinking bean has obvious roasted aromas of chocolate, nuts, and caramel on the palate, smooth and sweet, with moderate body and a clean mouthfeel. After the temperature drops, a pleasant soft acidity can be felt.

The above content is compiled by CoffeeHunters, a coffee news website.