A worthwhile read, travel in 2020
In Colombia, discovering the mesmerising beauty of a coffee plant
Travel in 2020 can still be wonderful
Tolima
There comes a point when you can’t sit any longer, when every sip of coffee is teasing you to get out and see it’s origin, amongst the clouds, amongst the sounds of mother earth’s vibrant forests cradled between her gargantuan fire breathing nostrils, her smouldering volcanic peaks. Here earth is not made in our image of griddles, grids, grid locks and lockdowns. This is earth in her wild glory — this is Colombia — the second most biodiverse country and the third largest coffee producer in the world.
So we’re getting up, out of our café chairs and jumping onto a winding bus journey to Tolima where hills of plants carrying our favourite fruit, coffee, grow tall.
The journey to Tolima from Bogota takes you through an incredible range of landscapes as you descend from 2600 metres above sea level, where glaciers exist in Europe but forests roll in the tropics, down through misty cloud forests and into the tropical climate zone. Here in the tropical zone the sweet fragrance of rice drifts off open paddy fields into our bus, carrying with it the lingering scent of fresh wood smoke as people prepare lunch in Tolima.
The bus stops for a quick break half way, the doors creek open and the heat rolls in. We’re in different place now, the air is heavy, warm and tropical fruit trees laden with guavas, mangos and limes line the streets. It’s too hot for coffee to grow here, but it’s just the right time of day to grab a tinto. Tinto is the name of a black coffee here in Colombia and is usually brewed simply, steeping dark roasted coffee in hot water. It can take a wide range of tastes but this one was tasty, since it had a twist of raw toffee like dried sugar cane juice.
From here the bus ascended and the climate cooled. Fog rolled into the spaces between leafy trees arching over the road, this is coffee territory. The anticipation mounted as we broke the threshold of 1400m above sea level, I couldn’t help but to peak out of the bus window in suspense, it was any moment now for a hill of coffee trees to burst forth into the scenery — and there it was! This is an exciting place to be!
Soon after the bus stopped and we hopped off the bus to walk over to the first farm, Finca Oasis, where were welcomed at the gates by happy dogs and a couple of cats.
Here, under the blue sky we found a field of brilliant Caturra coffee shaded by fruit and nut trees. The flavour of caturra coffee is bright and citric, perfect for the weather. You can tell this is a field of caturra too as the plants are dwarfs, not taller than half a banana tree. This is due to a natural mutation that diverged it from its parent plant, the bourbon coffee variety.
From here we hop on another bus to climb higher in altitude and the coffee varieties change, we’re in super premium territory now. Here Typica and the famous Gesha variety grows.
You know a Typica because its new leaves are a beautiful bronze, as if it knew it was bringing into our world the magic of roasted coffee colours — I ate it.
I was surprised the leaf was soft and velvety upon biting, like lambs lettuce. This smoothness is a feature of Typica leaves to the touch too. The flavour on the other hand was bolder and as perhaps expected — a vegetal bang with with slightly astringent mouthfeel. I thought:
it’s clear why these leaves are traditionally roasted before consumption
Though as time passed the flavours developed into a fresh green tea and held for a long time, really quite delicious.
Whilst munching the leaf we began our climb of another 300m in altitude on the farm by foot, you could clearly see how tall Typica coffee plants are with some doubling my height at 12ft tall.
When we reached the zenith of the farm incredible views graced our eyes, cool clouds rolling over the mountains from Nevado del Ruiz an infamous, active, snow-capped volcano. It made for a very interesting micro climate too, as the breathtakingly deep valley directly beneath us was at a much lower altitude, thus amassing warm air which you felt rising up in a continuous stream.
At this point a certain memory of farm I visited last year struck me — Mikava Gesha Estates. A talk about the beauty of coffee plants would not be complete without mentioning Gesha. Mikava’s founder, Paul Kevin Doyle, who won the Colombia Cup of Excellence 2019 competition, was the first to introduce me to the beauty of a coffee tree and to him, for at least this, I’ll always be thankful.
One saffron skied evening we sipped his award winning, blossomy and nuanced coffee whilst appreciating the elegance of Mikava Gesha’s slender, near perfectly 45 degree branches.
Thanks for reading — if you enjoyed it slap the clap icon like a caffeinated seal and follow! It helps the coffee project move forward. Thanks again and see you for the next adventure in a few days.
