Why Medellin is the Perfect Specialty Coffee Scene

Reading time: 6 minutes.

Is Medellin everything a coffee loving adventurer could ask for?

Medellin is the second largest city in Colombia behind Bogota, located in the state of Antioquia. It has an economy based on agriculture, textiles, energy, and a wave of rapidly growing tourism activities. As you have probably seen on Netflix, thirty years ago Medellin was famously plagued by drug cartels- a cancer that changed the peaceful and beautiful city into one of the most dangerous cities around the world. Today, Medellin is evolving from place troubled by social problems such as FARC, narcos and poverty into an innovation cluster of opportunities that appeal to local and international business alike.

1. Medellin was the founding place of the modern coffee industry in Colombia

Medellin was the founding place of the modern coffee industry of Colombia and is the home of specialty coffee bean suppliers, Those Coffee People. In the early 1900’s, a team of elite businessmen came together in Medellin to establish the National Federation of Coffee Growers of Colombia (FNC or Federación Nacional de Cafeteros de Colombia). From the FNC, an icon was born that would soon be known across all four corners of the globe- Juan Valdez. This “campesino” character of Juan Valdez aimed to personify the culture and traditions of Colombian coffee growers was probably one of the planet’s most successful marketing strategies in the 60´s. Juan Valdez was responsible for teaching the world about the coffee of Colombia!

Unfortunately, during Colombia’s time of social and political unrest the coffee industry took a large hit. Farmers’ profits were shrinking to a point where they couldn’t even pay their expenses so many farmers decided to exit the coffee industry. For a moment, Colombia saw the innovative and entrepreneurial spirit of its people dwindle as the coffee industry experienced a slow down.

2. Medellin is not only a great turistic city, is a perfect place to develop ideas and culture.

When the city started waking up from the nightmare of the drug cartel occupation, the world started to once again show interest in Medellin. People who took the initial risk to visit the newly safe Medellin, and created strong word of mouth advertising about the experience that they had with this hard working culture that was trying to clean up their name and reputation. Shortly after, the floodgates opened and the whole world started to recognize Medellin as a great touristic city. Travelers started discovering countless reasons to love Medellin including the warm and hospitable local culture, and the city’s strong position is developing music, sports, food, unique lifestyle and rapid urban innovation. These factors showed Medellin not only as a travel destination, but also a place to develop ideas and culture.

3. Medellin uses modern tactics of innovation into their coffee production

With all these events and developments, the city began to see a change it it’s coffee culture where for the first time, traditional practices were starting to change and leave more room for innovation. Keeping in mind the previously slowed down coffee industry, and the recent surge for innovation and improvements, farmers began to implement these modern tactics of innovation into their production! There was a growing international market for high quality coffee from Colombia promoting the production of a new wave of high quality coffee in small amounts. The mentality was changing from quantity to quality.

Those Coffee People discovered the great potential of this city as their home for their specialty coffee supply company. Amazing people, perfect geography for developing various qualities of coffee, a modern and organized city moving on a spirit of innovating, a charming place to live in an establish the headquarters, a city that already works with coffee in depth, and a wave of possibilities coming from the people who comes here to enjoy this beautiful city. The cluster of the innovation, the place of the possibilities, the city of the eternal spring- this is Medellin.

Based on your interest in this article, we recommend:

1. A guide to Sourcing and Exporting coffee from Colombia
2. Coffee certifications in Colombia
3. What defines Specialty Coffee?

Editor’s note: This post was originally posted on May 2018 and has been updated for freshness, accuracy, and comprehensiveness.

Creation of Those Coffee People

Reading time: 7 minutes.

In the summer of 2017 Those Coffee People Founders Jennifer and Andres met during a “bucket list” trip to Peru. In the south of the country sits a small desert oasis called Huacachina, a famous little village outside the town of Ica. One chilly morning, Jennifer went out to take breakfast in the boutique hotel she was staying in and found Andres on the  hotel patio enjoying a coffee. The patio was crowded so Jennifer went and took a seat at the open chair next to Andres and conversation quickly started. Standard traveler’s questions like “where are you from?” and “where are you going?” lead them to realize their paths were going to be crossing for the following week as they had the same travel plans from Huacachina to Cusco.

When traveling on your own, you quickly find that it is easy to bond with other travelers, and for Jennifer and Andres that was no exception. They quickly found that even though they came from different cultures and spoke different native languages, they both had a similar love for adventure, discovery, travel, and coffee. They traveled together from Huacachina to Cusco and continued to build an unlikely friendship through a shared experience of discovering Peru.

One evening in Cusco they were speaking about their travel plans after Peru. Andres was headed back to Medellin, Colombia, and Jennifer had tentative plans to head south into Bolivia. Not restricted by any actual travel bookings or reservations, Andres saw this as a prime moment to share some of the enticing points of going to visit his city. As a proud Paisa (a person from Antioquia state in Colombia), he quickly started pitching to Jennifer on how wonderful Medellin and the surrounding areas was, how unique and interesting the local coffee culture is. Jennifer had only heard about Medellin from Narco’s and didn’t have any motivation to make the trip there on her own, but after hearing out a persuasive pitch by Andres she decided to swap her plans of going to Bolivia to head north and discover the city of Medellin.

Arriving into the airport in Rionegro, a town on the outskirts of the city, her perception of Medellin was instantly turned onto its head. Dramatic mountainous landscapes with lush green vegetation spanned as far as the eye could see. As they drove from the airport into the city, the green didn’t stop in the normal way it does when entering a main city, but on the contrary buildings seemed to naturally embed themselves into the landscape in a beautiful combination of modern day metropolis and pristine beauty. It was no contest- Medellin was everything a coffee loving young adventurer could ask for.

It was no contest- Medellin was everything a coffee loving adventurer could ask for.

The next week followed with many visits to Medellin’s huge variety of cafes. Andres shared stories on the production side of the coffee supply chain through his family’s experiences and Jennifer shared unique stories of how she discovered people are changing the way they drink coffee across the globe. They agreed there was a huge paradigm shift happening in coffee consumption, but less developments happening on the production and supply chain side. Customers are now undoubtedly interested in learning about the story behind their coffee, direct trade is being seen as highly valuable, and average customers are starting to be conscious about specialty coffee. In this exact moment, the idea for Those Coffee People was born- a company that focused on establishing direct trade Colombian coffee around the world to align with the third wave of specialty coffee consumption!

Long story short, what happened in the summer of 2017 was the perfect storm where serendipity and opportunity collided and the idea for Those Coffee People was born.

Based on your interest in this article, we recommend:

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2. A guide to importing coffee beans into Japan
3. A guide to importing coffee beans in the US
4. How to import green arabica coffee beans into Oman
5. A guide to importing coffee beans into Saudi Arabia
6. A guide to importing coffee beans into Kuwait

Editor’s note: This post was originally posted on May 2018 and has been updated for freshness, accuracy, and comprehensiveness.

What Defines Specialty Coffee?

Reading time: 7 minutes.

What actually is specialty coffee?

After a global wave of  sudden awareness to specialty coffee circa 2017, we would like to address a very important topic, what actually is specialty coffee? It seems in some of the cafe’s we have visited, specialty coffee seems to be perceived as just a specialty preparation rather than a description of the beans themselves. According to the Specialty Coffee Association of America’s website, “…the term ‘specialty coffee’ was first coined by Erna Knutsen, of Knutsen Coffee Ltd., in a speech to the delegates of an international coffee conference in Montreuil, France. The concept was quite simple: special geographic microclimates produce beans with unique flavor profiles.”

The basic definition of specialty coffee was also supported by the understanding that specialty coffee beans would always be freshly roasted, and properly brewed.” The Specialty Coffee Association of America has created rating system in order to evaluate the quality of flavors in each type of coffee. The way the coffee is tasted is by “cupping” and the evaluation gives each coffee a quality rating on a 100 point scale. By standardizing the cupping, the SCAA intend to prevent the loss of meaning of the term specialty.

Specialty coffee retailers should strive to recognize the uniqueness and specialty of each origin, and the concept of terroir. Terroir, a term made popular by the wine industry, is described in Tanzer, Stephen’s What is Terroir as “the set of all environmental factors that affect a crop’s phenotype, including unique environment contexts, farming practices and a crop’s specific growth habitat.” Specialty coffee has its own terroir from the earth that gives each microlot its unique characteristics. Together, these factors all impact the coffee and give it an original profile.

1. Microlots

2. Special geographic regions and terroir

3. Special bean varieties

4. Its not just about preparation, its about the beans themselves.

Here at Those Coffee People we strive to offer our customers an extraordinary coffee buying experience through our grouping systems that differentiate the types of specialty Colombian coffee.

Group 1 (link) offers consumers unique Terroir of the lands of these farms. Each of our group 1 coffees is a single estate or grouping of a few farms from the same town. In this coffee you can experience the unique profiles and attributes that comes from the microclimates, soil composition, and unique harvesting methods of the farms. 

Group 2 (link) coffee offers the same terroir experience of our single estate producers but also a specialty profile beginning to emerge from the distinct processes and procedures implemented at the farms. In Colombia 100% of the coffee is hand picked because the land is so rugged a machine couldn’t possibly function. In group 2 you get an even more elevated experience because the farms all have strict protocols to ONLY pick the ripest beans leading to unique profiles and attributes in the cup. 

Group 3 (link) represents high scoring coffees with unique processes such as extended fermentation, natural, and honey. In Colombia, washed coffee makes up an overwhelming majority of coffee production because the government guarantees they will buy all of the production of every single coffee farmer as long as it is traditional washed process. Therefore having other processes in Colombia is a much higher risk for producers since the government won’t buy the coffee if they can’t find a private buyer. Those Coffee People has discovered and supplies some of the country’s best produced unique process coffee beans. Mango, pineapple, grape, tamarind, cognac and more unique flavors really emerge in this group. 

Group 4 (link) is our highest scoring group on average with coffees from traditional or exotic varieties. The Colombian government, in an attempt to protect the harvests against drought and diseases, created and heavily promoted new varieties of coffee that were very strong and resistant. Unfortunately these beans were more dull in flavor from the traditional varieties like Typica, Bourbon, Caturra, and Tabi. In group 4, we only include these traditional full flavored varieties as well as exotics like sudan rume, geisha, and wush wush. 

Reach out to us for your complimentary consultation of which group is suitable for your needs or take our online quiz to find out the same with the chance to directly order.

Based on your interest in this article, we recommend:

1. Creation of Those Coffee People
2. Coffee certifications in Colombia
3. A guide to sourcing and exporting coffee from Colombia

Editor’s note: This post was originally posted on May 2019 and has been updated for freshness, accuracy, and comprehensiveness.

Coffee Certifications in Colombia

Reading time: 8 minutes.

What are the meanings of Coffee Certifications in Colombia?

Over the last 20 years, there has been an increased appreciation for consumer products that come with certifications. It builds trust in consumers, creates a validation for producers and seems to be a great asset towards helping companies accomplishes their missions. Well-known certifications like “Fair Trade” and “Organic” are quite popular, but in the coffee environment there are other important certifications as well, including Bird Friendly, Rainforest Alliance, and UTZ. Here at Those Coffee People we take the time to carefully consider all certifications of our coffee origins and appreciate the different benefits each make to both the farmers and the environment.

1. Organic: the most well known worldwide.

In order to receive an organic certification, the farm must not have used prohibited substances on the land for a minimum time of three years. Prohibited substances included most synthetic pesticides, herbicides, and fertilizers. Another requirement specifically for coffee includes a buffer between the coffee and any other crop not grown organically.

There are different fees that must be paid by producers in order to receive the organic certification. Due to this cost, it sometimes disallows poorer farmers to be recognized as organic even if they abide by the standards. However, producers who are able to pay the fees will often benefit from being able to sell their product at a higher rate.

2. Fair Trade: The second most recognized certification

Essentially, a fair trade certification is an assurance that the producers are involved in profit sharing and can be paid fair wages for their work. This allows communities to grow and innovate in order to create sustainability and a better chance at the future. Certification is only available to democratically-organized cooperatives or associations of small producers, not individually-owned farms or estates, or those that rely heavily on hired labor. Cooperatives who are fair trade certified receive a minimum price per pound, with an additional premium if the coffee is also certified organic. In addition, producers receive the Fair Trade Premium above the purchase price that farmers democratically invest according to their priorities. These increased costs are of coursed passed on to the consumer, which give rationale if you’re paying more for a fair trade latte vs. a standard latte.

3. Bird Friendly

A Bird Friendly certification allows consumers to know that the producer is protecting the environment in a way that does not disrupt, beyond a certain extent, the local habitat of native species. Requirements include a having a canopy at least 12 meters high with the dominant tree species being native, a minimum of 40% shade cover even after pruning, at least two strata or layers of vegetation, made up of at least 10 woody species dispersed throughout the production area. In addition to these requirements, the coffee must also be certified organic. There is no certification fee but the producer must pay for periodical audits. These fees support bird conservation research. Producers with this certification are able to charge 5-10 cents higher per pound.

4. Rainforest Alliance, and UTZ

Rainforest Alliance and UTZ merged together in the beginning of 2018.

The Rainforest Alliance promotes standards for sustainability. It covers a number of ecological issues as well as community relations and fair treatment of workers. Certification is awarded based on a score for meeting a minimum number of an array of criteria. Producers with this certification can use the certification to negotiate a better price for their coffee, generally an additional 5 to 10 cents per pound.

UTZ   emphasizes on transparency and traceability in the supply chain and efficient farm management. The latter includes good agricultural practices such as soil erosion prevention, minimizing water use and pollution, responsible use of chemicals, and habitat protection.

In Conclusion

Certification was originally perceived as a strategy for strengthening the position of small coffee producers in the value chain. Consumers must keep in mind that these certifications cost the producers money — both in fees paid to the different certification bodies and in costs associated to changes in their methods to achieve the necessary standards. This often causes issues as some consumers are only willing to pay small amounts for these environmental or social impacts, which threatens the good work that the certifications are aiming to accomplish. In order to keep coffee trade sustainable, the final consumer will need to be willing to shoulder the costs.

Based on your interest in this article, we recommend:

1. Harvest report April 2020
2. A Guide to Sourcing and Exporting Coffee from Colombia
3. Health benefits of coffee

Editor’s note: This post was originally posted on August 2019 and has been updated for freshness, accuracy, and comprehensiveness.

Health Benefits of Coffee

Reading time: 6 minutes.

What are the benefits of drinking coffee?

1. Coffee consumption is linked with a lower risk of several types of cancer

Coffee health properties have been contested for years, but overwhelming research suggests the health benefits significantly outweigh the potential negatives. In fact, in a June 2016 report, the World Health Organization (WHO) officially lifted coffee from the list of potentially carcinogenic foods. It went on further to label coffee as potentially protective against certain cancers. The WHO is also not the only relevant organization to change their perception of the beverage as others are also recognizing the overwhelming studies that suggest major health benefits. World Cancer Research Fund International determined that coffee consumption was linked with a lower risk of several types of cancer. Additionally The 2015 Dietary Guidelines Advisory Committee (commissioned by the secretaries of the US Department of Health and Human Services and the US Department of Agriculture) declared, “moderate coffee consumption (three to five cups per day) can be incorporated into a healthy dietary pattern.”

2. Contains Vitamin B2, B5, Potassium, Magnesium and Niacin

Breaking down the contents of coffee also surprisingly yielded amazing results. and Coffee is way more than just beautiful brown liquid and a single cup of coffee contains:

• Riboflavin (Vitamin B2): 11% of the recommended daily allowance (RDA)
• Pantothenic Acid (Vitamin B5): 6% of the RDA
• Manganese and Potassium: 3% of the RDA
• Magnesium and Niacin (B3): 2% of the RDA

Furthermore, coffee can provide a massive amount of antioxidants. In fact, multiple studies including in The Journal of Nutrition show that most people get more antioxidants from coffee than both fruits and vegetables together.

3. Improves energy levels and brain function

Additionally, since coffee is high in caffeine we experience health benefits from the stimulating properties. It improves energy levels and various aspects of brain function, as well as improved mood. All of these can all lead to a more advantageous position for completing important tasks or work.

4. Boosts metabolic rate and increases fat burning

Several studies also link caffeine to boosting metabolic rate and an increase in fat burning. Various experts concluded that caffeine could boost metabolic rate on average between 3-11% while others attest it can specifically boost fat burning up to 10% in obese individuals and all the way to 29% in lean people.

5. Is linked to a lower risk pf getting Alzheimer, Parkinson and type2 diabetes

Coffee has also been proven to link to a reduction in certain types of diseases and cancers. Several studies show that coffee drinkers have up to a 65% lower risk of getting Alzheimer’s disease (which is the leading cause of dementia).  Additionally, in studies, coffee drinkers have a much lower risk of developing Parkinson’s disease, with a reduction in risk ranging from 32-60%. Coffee drinkers also have a reduced risk of developing type 2 diabetes. According to a massive review that cross examined data from 18 studies with a total of 457,922 individuals, each daily cup of coffee was associated with a 7% reduced risk of developing type 2 diabetes. Research also suggests that coffee may protect against cirrhosis of the liver; people who drink 4 or more cups per day have up to an 80% lower risk of developing the disease.

On a final note, it is with great pleasure that we can proudly say coffee can actually help you live a longer and healthier life. Considering the tremendous research that proves coffee can lower your risk of many diseases and cancers, and that there are mood-boosting principles associated with caffeine, it is clear that this is a beverage to be enjoyed with peace of mind. For an amazing source of freshly roasted coffee, you can check out One Coffee Snob for the best offers of Western Australia!

Based on your interest in this article, we recommend:

1. A Guide to Sourcing and Exporting Coffee from Colombia
2. Coffee certifications in Colombia
3. What defines Specialty Coffee?

Editor’s note: This post was originally posted on August 2019 and has been updated for freshness, accuracy, and comprehensiveness.