Colombia El Indio

As the second most diverse country in the world—a fact made even more impressive by the country’s relatively small size—Colombia is home to distinct climate zones determined by landscape and elevation. The country is divided into departments; each of which contain such varying terrains as stretches of the Amazon rainforest, highlands, peaks of the Andes Mountain range, savannas, and deserts. It is the only South American country with both Atlantic and Pacific coastlines and includes islands that sit to the mainland’s north in the Caribbean Sea. 

It is this stark biodiversity, and variety of landscape, climate, and elevation that makes coffee production in Colombia so unique. Twenty of this country’s thirty-two departments produce coffee in vastly different quantities and qualities. Northern and central departments produce the majority of this country’s coffee and they make up tasting profiles that are more familiar to us when we think of Colombian coffees—full-bodied, chocolatey, and nutty—like our Colombia Midnight Express. But it is the Southwestern departments of Huila and Tolima with high elevation farms that produce smaller quantities of highly unique and complex coffees. 

This coffee comes from 175 coffee producing families in the Tolima region of Colombia, one of these high elevation areas for farming. Grown between 1500 and 2150 meters above sea level, these Caturra varietal plants produced cherries that underwent a natural process to elicit an intensely bright and sweet flavor profile of dark chocolate, red wine, and raspberry.