Venturer's Log: Salento

Nick's birthday, Salento, and the Zona Cafetaria

Ahh Salento, I have heard so much about you... 

Salento is part of the zona cafeteria, or the coffee region of Colombia. It's not officially part of the Gringo Trail but it probably should be, as it is clearly a town that people come to - there are plenty of accommodation options, bars, restaurants, and activities to keep tourists happy. 

We arrived the day before Nick's birthday. I was keen to ensure we were somewhere nice for his birthday, and we didn't want to be travelling on the day, so we journeyed up from Villavieja and the Tatacoa desert on the 27th. It was a fairly straightforward journey, although to avoid backtracking it meant crossing a river, walking for 40 minutes, and flagging down the coach as it drove past. Nevertheless, we arrived, checked in to our hotel, and when we woke up it was Nick's birthday and we were in sunny Salento. 

Nick's birthday we spent mostly chilling and watching the Liverpool game (Liverpool won), followed by a super great dinner at Bernabé Café & Bistro. 

Then today we woke up late (necessary) and went out for brunch (ideal) before exploring the town a bit. Salento is a super cute colonial town with lots of painted facades and a really nice plaza which seems to be where daily life revolves around, with kids playing in the square in the middle, and lots of coffee shops and restaurants with plastic tables and chairs set up outside. Along one side of the plaza is a row of old-school jeeps which basically act as a shared taxi service for tourists trying to get around the area. Salento is the gateway to the Valle de Corcora where you can find the county's tallest tree, the wax palm, and loads of people come here to hike the Valle (which we're planning to do as well), and you have to take the jeep from Salento if you don't have your own transport. Today we had different plans though. 

The Zona Cafetaria and Finca El Ocaso

All around the zona cafeteria there are loads and loads of coffee farms, each offering their own tours of the farm as well as the opportunity to try their coffee. I was recommended Finca El Ocaso by a friend of mine who spent some time in Colombia a few years ago, so we purchased our tickets from the booth in the Salento plaza, boarded a jeep with a bunch of other people who were going to various other farms in the same area, and were on our way. 

It was a bumpy ride down dirt roads but we got chatting to the other passengers who were all very friendly. The views did not disappoint either as we passed by lush green terraced hills and under pine forest. The journey to the farm took about 30 minutes and fortunately all the passengers got off at another farm halfway there so we had the jeep to ourselves. 

The main building of Finca El Ocaso

We arrived at El Ocaso right before the tour started, and there were only 2 other people on the tour which was ideal. The guide explained to us a bit about the different varieties of coffee, and a little about the history of coffee in Colombia as well as process the farm uses to grow, pick and roast their coffee. We were then given the opportunity to pick our own coffee beans from some of the surrounding crops. It's not the right season for harvesting at the moment but our guide explained that coffee beans ripen throughout the year, and to look for any that are yellow or red. We all managed to come away with a few handfuls of beans each and I felt very satisfied for my 10 minutes of work. The guide explained that the full-time farmhands who pick the beans are paid a salary so there isn't a quota they need to fulfill however that during the harvest season who are paid by kilogram of beans picked, which I thought sounded reasonable.

After we finished picking our beans we were shown how to peel them to get the actual bean out, and we were able to taste one of them which was surprisingly sweet. Our guide told us that good coffee doesn't need sugar added to it because it should already have some natural sweetness due to the sugars in the raw beans. We planted a bean each and then we were shown how technology has changed from the manual method of removing the husk from the bean to a more technological way of doing it, and then we saw a lot more of the process of turning the raw beans into the roasted beans we are all familiar with. From husk removal, soaking, to roasting, there were a lot of steps the beans go through before they are ready to be consumed, none of which I knew about! 

After the tour of the facility the guide took us back to where we started, to make us a cup of coffee each. He asked for a volunteer to grind the beans, which I stepped up to straight away, and the smell that emanated from the ground beans was incredible. Earlier in the day we had been told that there is a bug which can drill a small hole into the raw beans while they're growing and that in order to make them safe to drink the beans must be overcooked resulting in a more bitter, carbon flavour. These are then grouped with any other beans that are intentionally or accidentally overcooked to form pasilla. The majority of the coffee that we'll find in Colombian coffee shops is made using Pasilla beans as the better quality product is exported. After I had ground the beans the guide showed us the difference between the pasilla grinds and the beans that I had just ground - the differences were remarkable! The smell and the colours were very distinct and although I'm not sure if I would be able to point out the differences in the future, it was still pretty cool to see them at this point. 

The guide then made us the coffee by taking the grounds and putting them into a filtering system which is rather difficult to explain so you'll have to look at the photo instead. Our guide told us that the way Colombians used to filter it was by using grandmother's pantyhose as it was fine enough for the water to go through, without allowing the coffee grinds into the cup. Thankfully, socks and pantyhose are no longer used. He added quite a lot of boiling water to the filter, and explained it was good to wait until the coffee was coming out a light brown to make sure that it had been properly filtered. He also said that using already-boiling water was better for the coffee to ensure that the grinds did not burn from excess heating.

Either way, we took our cups once it had been poured out and took a sip. I don't love coffee and the first taste was really bitter, but our guide explained that the first sip should be bitter because it is taking over from the flavours already in our mouths. The second sip was certainly better, and the third sip was significantly improved. Our guide explained that we should always reserve our opinion of a cup of coffee until the third sip, as that's when we would be able to taste the actual flavour profile of the coffee itself, rather than the strong bitterness of the first mouthful. 

I have to be honest and say that I didn't finish my entire cup. I think it's a very strong flavour and takes some time to get used to it, or maybe I'm just used to shittier coffee. I also prefer my coffee with milk, and the coffee we had on the farm was very black. 

Nick drank all of his though, which is impressive considering he didn't like coffee at all until about 2 months ago when he had his first sip of a moccachino I had ordered. So A+ to Nick for improving his taste buds and a B- for me because I did the volunteering on the day and picked more coffee than he did. 

After our cups of coffee we headed back onto the jeep which had come to collect us and drove back up the bumpy road to Salento. 

All in all, I would say our visit to Finca El Ocaso was worth the visit. It was educational and interesting, and I really enjoyed getting interactive and picking our own beans, shelling them, and then the added bonus of being the volunteer to grind up the beans that we then drank. I think it would have been better if we had the chance to taste more of their different coffee varieties, but we did only take the basic tour so maybe the upgraded version would have included more of this. That being said, it was definitely something different to what we have done in Colombia so far so I definitely think it was a great way of spending the afternoon!