Savoring the Moment

On Saturday, our final full day in Salento, we decided we needed to take a coffee tour. When in Rome, do as the Romans do. We were in the coffee region so we had to see what it’s all about. I’m not a coffee drinker. I know what you’re thinking…Heathen! Who doesn’t like coffee? Really, truly, I do not like coffee. Now, I could stand outside a coffee shop and savor the aroma all day, but I just don’t like the flavor. I had always told myself it was because my first taste of coffee was probably the cheapest coffee my aunt could buy. So, while we were where the best coffee was grown, maybe I’d realize I could like it if I just tried good coffee. It’s worth the try. And hey, maybe I’d learn something too.

There are several different coffee tours in the Salento area. Different fincas (farms) run their own tour, but it seems most go over about the same things. The shorter tours (approximately 1 1/2 hours) explain how the coffee is grown and do a little tasting at the end. The longer tour (3 hours) goes more in-depth about the production, spends quite a bit of time discussing the nuances of the various ways the beans are roasted and aged and has an extensive tasting. We figured since we were going to do it, we’d do it big and booked the three-hour tour, the three-hour tour. (Sorry, couldn’t resist.)

Calle Real on Saturday

The tour didn’t start until the afternoon, so we took the morning to wander around and do some souvenir shopping. Remember when I mentioned how quiet Salento is? That doesn’t apply to the weekends. On Saturday and Sunday people come from all over and Salento turns into a party town. The Calle Real, the main road, was turned into a pedestrian way and the main square was covered in booths selling trinkets and food. There was even a band playing in the square. Apparently, this happens every weekend. Salento is truly bi-polar. It was fun to wander around and see all of the interesting crafts and, of course, the typical souvenirs. Just the previous day, half the shops weren’t open. Now, all the doors were opened wide and shop owners were asking passers-by to come in and see. Neither of us saw exactly what we were looking for, so we headed back to the hotel to rest before our coffee tour.

Band entertaining passers by

Letting the kids “drive” a Willy around the square

We caught a Willy Jeep (they seem to be the local version of a taxi in Salento) in the square for the 20 minute ride to the Ocasa finca. Our guide started the tour explaining why Colombia is the third largest producer of coffee. The primary reason is due to the particular geography in that region - mountains and relative constant temperatures. The weather allows for a continual growing season instead of just a partial year growing season. He then gave each of us a basket, showed us what a ripe coffee cherry looks like and sent us out to pick for 5 minutes. It didn’t take long to find the ripe ones. I made sure to only grab a handful so as not to waste too many.

Different varieties of coffee

Coffee cherries on the tree

At this stage, the cherry (the full bean including the shell and mucilage) is put through a grinder type of machine to remove the shell. From here, some of the beans are washed and dried and others are not washed but are fermented with the mucilage to eventually be dried. This is considered honey coffee. (I’d never even heard of honey coffee before!) After the beans are dried in long greenhouse-like buildings, they are roasted. Our guide had us each taste a dried coffee bean. I was expecting to get a hint of the coffee flavor. Nope, they’re tasteless. The bean develops its flavor from roasting.

My basket of cherries

The roasting process is extremely complicated. If you’re really interested in all the specific steps, I’m sure there’s a YouTube video or two to explain it. Honestly, I got lost after just a few steps. Needless to say, the reason good coffee costs so much is that there’s a lot of work that can only be done by hand.

Hand-crank grinder

From here, we all went into the Tasting Lab to learn all about coffee tasting and how lots of factors affect the taste. We were given small bottles with different liquids in them and were asked what each was. Of the ten we smelled, I could only identify two. Guess I’m not going to get a job as a professional ‘nose’ anytime soon! The point of that was to identify if there was something “off” with a particular batch of beans. Too much of one kind of scent, like raw potato or pepper means the beans were either over fermented or something else went wrong in processing. He then ground and brewed several different types of coffee for us to smell and taste. He showed us how the professional tasters slurp a small spoonful to be sure the whole tongue senses the coffee. It looked and sounded weird to me. Ten people walking around a table slurping spoonfuls of coffee. I’m not sure about everyone else, but I really couldn’t tell the nuances of cherries or almond notes. It all tasted like coffee to me. At least I could tell the difference between the good stuff and the “cheap” one.

Drying trays

I was kind of hoping after this experience I would find that I’d at least not hate coffee. Maybe there’s a coffee out there I’d like. I can say there was one that I didn’t hate, but I won’t go out of my way to drink it. At least I can say I tried.

Once back in Salento, he party atmosphere had cranked up a little. We wandered around a little more and finally found just the right souvenirs as we headed back to our hotel. I really enjoyed our several day stop in Salento. If you like a small, quiet village to spend a few days away from the big city, I heartily recommend heading to Salento during the week. If you want to live it up a little but still on the smaller side, visit Salento over the weekend. You’ll be glad you did.