Colombia is not spelled Columbia, a common misconception when it comes to this bean. Columbia is a school in New York City and the name of a popular outdoor clothing company. Colombia, the country however, is the third largest producer of coffee in the world! In fact, two million Colombians depend on coffee production for their income.
Our Colombian bean is from the Acevado municipality of Huila (pronounced ‘Wila). Huila is a department of Colombia and in the Southwest portion of the country between the east and west peaks of the Andes Mountain Range. These beans are grown at a higher altitude of between 1450 and 1750 meters above sea level. They are washed processed and then dried in the sun for 16 days. The word Excelso is used to describe the size of the beans and means they are slightly larger than normal. The beans are harvested from three different varietals of coffee bushes. They are grown on three different varietals of the coffee plant, Castilla (60%), the Caturra (20%), and Colombia (20%).
We offer our Colombian bean specialty roasted at two different roast levels, medium and dark. Both roast profiles are going to give this coffee a big bold chocolate and caramel flavor profile. With the dark roast you will lose some of the sweetness from the caramel flavor tones in exchange for darker more bitter dark roast notes, but this bean does very well dark roasted. This specialty roasted coffee is full bodied and amazing in your mouth!
Brewing
If you are going to brew this bean as drip or pour over, we suggest using a ratio of around 1-18 grams of coffee to water respectively. For instance, a 1-20 ratio would use 8 grams of coffee for every 160 grams (or ml) of water. Now if you’re not as familiar with grams and want more common cooking measurement terms, you can use 2 tablespoons of ground coffee for every 10 ounces of water when brewing hot drip coffee. If you would like to make cold brew with this Colombian bean, the ratio of coffee to water will really depend on your preference of how strong you want your colbrew concentrate to be. The stronger you make the coffee, the more you may need to dilute it with water when preparing it to drink. To make smaller batches of cold brew, use 8 oz of ground coffee for every 56 oz of water, or for larger batches 1 pound of ground coffee for every gallon of water. If you would like to use our Colombian bean to make espresso, we recommend 7 grams for a single shot and 14 grams for a double shot. If you are a chocolate lover, this bean will not disappoint. It really is wonderful brewed by any method though!
We brew this coffee and other specialty roasted coffees for our farmers market booth, you may have tried this bean already and know how wonderful it is. If you have not, it is one to try and we do offer sample sizes on our website. In Las Vegas we are always at the Downtown Summerlin Farmers Market on Saturdays from 9 am to 2 pm and on Sundays from 9 am to 2 pm at the Southern Highlands Corporate Center. If you are traveling to Las Vegas to visit you can also call our roastery to schedule an in-person tour of our coffee warehouse where you can also pick-up any online retail orders you place. We do offer all of our Specialty Roasted Coffee in Las Vegas for wholesale to local coffee shops as well as out of state cafes. We hope this helped you gain some good insight into one of our superstar coffee beans and we look forward to serving you soon!