The greatest concentration of high quality coffee in the world comes from departments in the western Andes of Colombia. Although the three departments that comprise the coffee triangle or eje Cafetero, Caldas, Risaralda, and Quindío, are the historic center of Colombian coffee, none of them is the biggest coffee producer. That title goes to the department of Huila. Huila produces 18% of Colombia’s coffee and year after year wins awards for the excellence of its coffee.
What Is Huila Coffee Like?
A common description from tastings of coffee from Huila, Colombia is that it has a caramel, fruity aroma, medium body, sweet notes, and bright acidity. Our personal favorite pink bourbon coffee comes from a farm high in the mountains of Huila. Huila comes from the Paez language and means luminous mountains. This region is likely one that will be spared much of the problems in coming years from a warmer climate because of its uniformly higher altitude. Thus this one of the regions whose high quality coffee will continue to be available even as coffee from other regions falls in quality while rising in price.
When Did Coffee Growing Begin in Huila?
Although folks were growing coffee in Colombia back at the beginning of the 19th century when it was still a Spanish colony, coffee growers were not common in Huila until the middle of the 19th century around the same time that coffee production became common in the old department of Caldas which comprised what are today Quindío, Risaralda, and Caldas. Like in the eje Cafetero, coffee growing in Huila is largely a matter of family coffee farms where coffee has been grown by the same families for generations. This has created, as it has in much of the Colombian coffee growing region, a culture that values sustainable land management and produces what is uniformly coffee that ranks with or above the best in the world.
Huila Colombia Coffee Direct to You
An excellent commercial coffee brand from Huila is Café Flor de Huila. If you are interested in coffee from small coffee farms in the high mountains of this Colombian department. Contact us at admin@buyorganiccoffee.org for more information. We will be pleased to help with both roasted coffee for home use and threshed green coffee ready for roasting shipped directly to you anywhere in the world.
Is Coffee from Huila Gourmet Coffee?
While there are advertised gourmet brands of coffee from this department of Colombia most of the coffee from this region is gourmet in quality even though it is not advertised as such. Likewise, much of this coffee is grown using sustainable agricultural practices and, as such, is organic in reality even though the grower is not paying to have his or her fields certified as organic on behalf of the USDA. The coffee culture is such that in Huila there is no mechanized coffee picking like in parts of Brazil. Part of this is simply because that would not work on the steep mountainsides where coffee grows in this region. More importantly it has to do with the culture of producing the highest quality of coffee out of pride in who these people are and pride in their region.