Salento Cafe
We’ve seen coffee growing everywhere in Colombia, but now we’re finally in the coffee region. Every mountain is covered with coffee plants perched on impossible angles.
We toured the coffee finca at the Plantation House in Salento. It’s a combination hostel, coffee farm and general playground for the owner’s kid and ours. They’ve got it all – even the rubber boots.
The owner Tim is an Englishman who decided he loved coffee so much he wanted to grow it himself. He’s an encyclopedia of information on all things coffee and gave us quite the education.
He’s got four varieties of arabica growing here and actually working hard to keep the batches separate – something not done elsewhere in Colombia. His master plan is to let people buy their own personal plot on the farm (with GPS coordinates to watch it grown, etc) and he’ll ship you the final product in whatever form you like. Something already done in the boutique wine industry, but not yet in coffee.
“Would you like a cup of coffee? It’s from my own personal finca in Salento, Colombia.”
Don’t mind the cat hair – they help the drying process (actually the coffee filter should take that out.)
😉
Wow. I get some pretty impressive roasts in San Francisco, but straight from the source? Hells Yeah!
How fitting that I’m enjoying a cup of coffee as I read this post. It’s great to be inspired yet again by someone who just got tired of the everyday grind (pun intended) and did something about it. Sounds like an untapped niche with potential. You’ve got another great collection of photos again. As always, I love the random adventures, and all the interesting people and places you keep encountering on your trip.
nice pics = )
Hey-I love cats! & what beautiful terrain!
now, if I could just also have another small adjacent patch to grow my own cacao (or is it cocoa?) to get the choc for my own mocha – then we’d be talking & drinking 🙂
cheers!
I thought I tasted a hint of cat in my last cup. Awesome photos. I love following your travels.
You went to the Plantation House! Isn’t it great? And Tim is such a gentleman. I will be going back as soon as I get my butt back to Colombia; hopefully, soon.