I have been visited coffee farm in Guatemala and Costa Rica and seen the roasting process in Finland, Paulig factory. Plantation House gave something much more!! Tim was so passionate about his farm and coffee :D What I liked the most was his idealogy about biodiversity plus he thought that making quality is more important than making money. His farm is 7 hectars and produces Arabica from traditional and modern plants. We saw the whole process and it was nice little group of us, Finns, Sweds and Norwegians. Go Scandinavia, the most coffee consuming countries!
Traditional coffee plant is the skinny one with less leaves. And then the modern one, ( you can get 4000 plants from Colombian goverment when registrating your farm) which can get up to 10m high and looks more like a tree. Tim had both of these. From white little flowers it takes 30-35 weeks to pick the ready red or yellow berries. From there you peel the berries, beans going otherside and peels to the other and they will be thrown back to the ground and used as a fertilizor. Beans needs to be washed and soaked about 18h to separate the bad from the good ones and also get the slimy sugar away. This water can be used again to produce coffee wine, more like an appertive or coffee whiskey, like Baileys.
Drying process depends about the season, will you dry the beans on owen or in the sun. April-May is one season to pick the berries but it is also the rainy season so drying takes longer, up to three weeks. Plantation House had two different drying places, other on the roof and other in the 'hot house'. After the beans are dry and once again separated you can start selling your coffee beans. This stage is how all our coffee beans are brought to Europe. Rarely they are roasted in the counties they are grown. Before roasting process you will have to peel the beans twice to get the actual green bean. This bean will be then ready to be roasted.
There are less roasteries than coffee farms. The person who roasts the beans will have years of experience. For our little amount of beans it took 10min to rovisitedn and 2min to cool down. Aroma was gorgeous!! It would be wrong talking about smell. We grinded the beans and made the most fresh coffee I have ever tasted! I love the smell of coffee but I don't like the taste, never have. Until today. The taste was so fresh and fruity, delicious full of flavors. My first cup of coffee :D
Finca was really beautiful also, and if you would want you coukd stay there also. Lots of pineapples, bananas, platanos, limes, oranges and blackberries growing all around coffee plants. They had tobacco also to keep insects away. All in all our half day tour was one of the best experiences so far.
Traditional coffee plant is the skinny one with less leaves. And then the modern one, ( you can get 4000 plants from Colombian goverment when registrating your farm) which can get up to 10m high and looks more like a tree. Tim had both of these. From white little flowers it takes 30-35 weeks to pick the ready red or yellow berries. From there you peel the berries, beans going otherside and peels to the other and they will be thrown back to the ground and used as a fertilizor. Beans needs to be washed and soaked about 18h to separate the bad from the good ones and also get the slimy sugar away. This water can be used again to produce coffee wine, more like an appertive or coffee whiskey, like Baileys.
Drying process depends about the season, will you dry the beans on owen or in the sun. April-May is one season to pick the berries but it is also the rainy season so drying takes longer, up to three weeks. Plantation House had two different drying places, other on the roof and other in the 'hot house'. After the beans are dry and once again separated you can start selling your coffee beans. This stage is how all our coffee beans are brought to Europe. Rarely they are roasted in the counties they are grown. Before roasting process you will have to peel the beans twice to get the actual green bean. This bean will be then ready to be roasted.
There are less roasteries than coffee farms. The person who roasts the beans will have years of experience. For our little amount of beans it took 10min to rovisitedn and 2min to cool down. Aroma was gorgeous!! It would be wrong talking about smell. We grinded the beans and made the most fresh coffee I have ever tasted! I love the smell of coffee but I don't like the taste, never have. Until today. The taste was so fresh and fruity, delicious full of flavors. My first cup of coffee :D
Finca was really beautiful also, and if you would want you coukd stay there also. Lots of pineapples, bananas, platanos, limes, oranges and blackberries growing all around coffee plants. They had tobacco also to keep insects away. All in all our half day tour was one of the best experiences so far.
 |
| Traditional coffee plant |
 |
| Modern coffee plant |
 |
| Tobacco |
 |
| Drying the beans at Hot House |
 |
| Peeling the beans |
 |
| Vino de Cafe and Cafe Whiskey |
