As this was another holiday weekend I decided to take a journey along Colombia’s coffee region. I had previously watched a coffee farm video from YouTuber Life with David which tickled my interest to take a Jardin Coffee Tour. The journey was similar to what David suggested in his video on how to get to Jardin from Medellin.
The journey took approximately 3 hours to arrive in Jardin. Jardin is a small town good for say 1-2 nights in my opinion which is perfect for a weekend trip with the family or with a significant love one. There are plenty of coffee fincas along the way to Jardin where life is calm and steady here. Throughout this town you will find many bars, restaurants, and bakeries, many of which that offer coffee for a beverage. My main mission here on this trip was to visit a coffee farm.
I found out later that night that this Colombian coffee farm that David had visited in his video was not available but another one would be the next day. The next morning came and they picked me up from my hotel on time (which is not typical in Colombia lol), and brought me by jeep to a coffee farm. Once there, they cooked me breakfast which was very delicious as we took in the easy life while watching 3 parrots. Once breakfast was done Gustavo (my tour guide) and another gentleman in the farm gave my tour group information about growing coffee and how the coffee business works in Colombia. One interesting fact is that just 2 years ago, the government approved for Colombian coffee growers to be allow to brand their own coffee.
After the informative session was done it was time to go out onto the land to pick coffee beans. Red beans are the ones that are most ripe and flavorful so I picked those to place in a basket. In order to take them to market, one must pick 6kgs of coffee just to have 1 kg accepted by Colombian wholesale coffee sellers. We were taught about the process to split the beans and roasting process. The coffee farm also includes banana and plantain trees since coffee can only be grown and produced for 5 months during the year.
All in all, the coffee farm was very beautiful, informative and had a knowledgeable family that ran it and I was able to purchase ground coffee upon the conclusion of the tour. Definitely an adventure I recommend anyone visiting Colombia to undertake.