Learn

León Campo levantando una taza de café en su puesto, con el molino y las bolsas detrás
How to taste a coffee properly, without being a taster
Cupping is not guessing at exotic flavours: it is paying attention in a fixed order. Fragrance, aroma, acidity, body, sweetness and aftertaste. It can be done at home with two... Read more...
Un pájaro posado en un comedero de madera, entre la vegetación del cafetal
Shade-grown coffee: why a tree overhead makes a better cup
Growing coffee under trees yields fewer kilos per hectare and better coffee. Shade lowers the temperature, the bean ripens more slowly, the soil holds and the birds stay. It is... Read more...
Racimo de cerezas de café amarillas, con una verde entre ellas
From cherry to cup: the steps almost nobody sees
There are eight steps between a cherry on the branch and coffee in a cup, and seven of them happen before the bean leaves the farm. Here is what each... Read more...
Manos revolviendo cerezas de café rojas recién recogidas
Washed, honey and natural: three processes, three different coffees
The same bean, from the same farm, gives three coffees with nothing in common. What separates them is not the variety or the altitude: it is time. How many hours... Read more...
Ladera sembrada de café entre la vegetación, en las montañas de Pijao
Why altitude changes the taste of coffee
Higher up it is colder, coffee ripens more slowly and the bean grows denser. That slowness is what concentrates sugars and acids: it is why a coffee from 1,700 metres... Read more...
León Campo con sombrero, sosteniendo una vasija con café en pergamino
What a single-origin coffee is, and why it changes what you drink
A single-origin coffee is one where the farm, the altitude, the variety and the process are known. It is not a quality grade: it is a chain of facts that... Read more...