Something incredible is happening in Colombia.

And you have to taste it to believe it!!!

When was the last time you tasted something that was truly remarkable?

The problem with over-exposure to quality is that your baseline for excellence shifts dramatically over time. If you are fortunate enough to be working in an industry that values quality, then your ability to become disappointed with what you previously held in high acclaim is something I can only describe as an occupational hazard. I am certainly not complaining about the fact that I get to consume delicious coffee and make a living doing so but, the truth is this: There is a lot of excellent coffee in the world but only a small percentage of this would be classified as outstanding.

If you look at the SCA quality scale above you will see that coffees with outstanding attributes will be awarded 9.00 points or above. I can confidently count on one hand the number of times that I have awarded a nine or higher for any given attribute in my grading sessions, so when you do find coffee worthy of this grade you tend to sit up and take note.

Overinflated grading has increasingly become the norm in the industry and is one of the many reasons I value the Q grader licence, the fact I am trained to cup, and grade objectively has allowed me to make some valuable buying decisions over the years and although slightly inflated scores might help to sell a little more coffee they tend to do more damage if you look at this from a wider perspective. This might seem a little dramatic but I would always - err on the side of caution - when someone is proclaiming to have a boatload of 90+ coffees on offer. Even 88+ for that matter.

What does this have to do with Colombia then?

Colombia has long had a reputation for producing some of the world’s most outstanding coffees. The world’s third largest producer of coffee by volume but more importantly the second largest producer in terms of global arabica production. Colombia’s rich and diverse coffee-growing regions and a plethora of microclimates have made this country the perfect destination for growing truly outstanding coffee. So, when I had a chance encounter with someone in early 2022 who was looking for feedback on some samples I wasn’t going to say no…

I am always slightly sceptical, as you may have guessed when someone is trying to offer me coffee that they believe is of outstanding quality however, this encounter was different. Mr Martinez of (Mi Cafe Trading Co), who I now class as a good friend and someone I trust was not looking to push 90+ coffee onto me, I believe he knew he had coffee of remarkable quality but needed this validated by someone who had the experience and fortunately for me I just happened to be in the right place at the right time.

Over the last couple of years, I have been keeping a close eye on coffees coming out of Colombia for a few reasons, one such reason has been the increasing amount of “experimental” coffee that has been steadily flowing into the market. Colombia has done a fantastic job of marketing itself as one of the world’s leading specialty coffee producers, the country has a very active and organised coffee federation that understands coffee is a viable economic resource for the country. This has led to heavy investment in research, infrastructure, and free market ideals which is incentivising the next generation of coffee producers to view coffee as a viable career choice for them and their families. All of this combined has seen coffee in Colombia move in the direction of producing coffee that is focused on developing quality and is in the very early stages of applying science and research-based protocols used in other industries to produce some extremely remarkable results.

What is so special about these coffees?

A few months back I wrote a piece on Lucia Solis A winemaker turned coffee processing specialist, who is currently exploring the benefits of applying wine-making techniques to elevate coffee quality. Being a coffee and wine lover I became slightly obsessed with her podcast and this became the catalyst in my search for someone who was applying these protocols in their coffee processing.

It just so happened that my chance encounter with Mr Martinez led me straight to the source and what I tasted on my cupping table in the weeks after has led me to question everything I had come to understand about coffee. Obviously, the coffee was incredible and I am very excited about the prospect of sharing them but I still have a lot of questions. So many, that I will be booking a trip to Colombia in the coming weeks to further my research and all I know at this point is, it would be foolish of me to ignore these coffees.

I am not sure if this is the future for total coffee production but I certainly think we could be moving into the next phase of specialty coffee.

Burts.