5 Best Colombian Coffee Brands – The Best Beans in the World

Colombia Jardín Coffee Zone Coffee

The Colombian Coffee Brands that use coffee beans that originate in coffee farms of Colombia represent the best of the best in terms of coffee bean flavor.

Why is this true?

With the equator running through the middle of Colombia, and the country’s Western borders facing the ocean from the Pacific and the Caribbean Sea, the climates in Colombia house some of the most lush agricultural areas in the world.

With such perfect agricultural farming conditions, it’s not a surprise that Colombian coffee brands are some of the most sought after in the world.

In this article we will visit Colombia and explore it’s strong coffee culture.  We will zoom down into each region and highlight some of the premier coffee farms in the world.

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In addition to the ocean weather patterns, the Andes Cordillera Mountain range provides ideal altitudes where coffee bean plants seem to thrive.

Colombia Home Flag

The Colombian Coffee Axis

Colombia - Coffee Triangle 030 - coffee plantation tour

“Colombia – Coffee Triangle 030 – coffee plantation tour” by McKay Savage, via Flickr (CC BY 2.0)

Colombia is the third largest producer in the world.  Only Brazil (#1), and Vietnam (#2) produce more.

A very large percentage of the Colombian Coffee brands whose coffee beans are grown in Colombia are grown within three small departments.  The departments are Caldas, Quindío, and Risaralda.

And, what’s more?

They each produce different Colombian Coffee types of bean.

A “department” in Colombia has similar characteristics to a “state” in the United States of America.

These three main coffee bean growing departments consume less than 2 percent of land in Colombia.  Yet, they produce most of the Colombian grown coffee beans.  They even provide most of the Colombian coffee roasters to be found in the world.  And, these Departments provide many of the best tasting South American coffee brands that can be found anywhere.

These departments are located on the side of the Andes Cordillera Mountain range, and are between 4,400 to 7,000 feet above sea level.

Colombia Coffee Zone Mountains

Colombia Coffee Mountain Zone

Caldas

The department of Caldas has approximately one million citizens.

Well over 90% consider themselves as either White or Mestizo.  Mestizo is a person with a mixture of Spanish and American Indian heritage.

The capital of Caldas is Manizales, which is located in central Caldas.  The majority of Colombian coffee brands grow their coffee beans in Caldas.

Manizales is also a source of higher education, sporting seven major universities.

Quindío

Quindío is the smallest department in Colombia.

But, what land it does have is extremely fertile for the purposes of growing coffee beans.

In 1954, the “Bonanza Cafetera” occurred and has been known since as the largest and most successful harvest of coffee beans in the history of Colombia.

Many consider Quindío the “center” of coffee in the world.  Many of the most respected coffee beans are produced here and exported as Colombian coffee brands all over the world.

Risaralda

Colombia Risaralda Plants Nature

Risaralda Plants in Nature

One of the major benefits that the Colombian departments like Risaralda have is a particular richness of soil.

Many of the great coffee bean producers from around the world have rich soil in common.  One of the reasons Risaralda has this rich soil is that it is right next to a mountain that used to erupt thousand of years before.

This means that the rich soils in Risaralda have their origin in volcanic ash and/or igneous rocks.  Many years of rain seasons convert these previous volcanic eruptions into a rich soil that is perfect for coffee bean production.

It wasn’t until 1966 that Risaralda separated from Caldas to become its own department.

From Hand Picked To Your Door

While researching Colombian coffee bean farming, we found this jewel from Discovery UK.

In this video it describes why hand picking coffee beans is important in order to end up with quality ripe coffee beans.

It then goes on to show the Colombian wet processing method.  During this process the pulp part of the farmers extract the coffee bean cherry and use it as compost in the field.

After fermentation, they clean the coffee beans using pure mountain water.   During the cleaning, the beans harvesters sort out the coffee beans by density.  The defective coffee beans can be easily identified because they are full of air and float to the top.

Watch the entire process in this very informative video:

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=evCf7YYZk3w

Brands that Scream Colombia

With Colombia producing coffee beans that can be compared to any in the world, it wasn’t very difficult finding these five top Colombian coffee brands.

Most of the owners of these products participate in fair trade agreements with the Colombian government.

So, sit back while you sip your cup and know that you are doing your part to help make sure that the infrastructure in Colombia is being taken care of by the owners you are spending your money on.

CoffeeCrazy Premium USDA Organic

First of all, let me say that this coffee tastes incredible!

If you want proof, major review sites like Amazon have well over 200 reviews and 96% of the reviewers give either 4 or 5 out of 5 stars.  Numbers like those just simply don’t exist for a taste based product.

Usually for something as subjective as coffee taste, you typically see closer to 10% give negative reviews.

CoffeeCrazy grows these Colombian Arabica coffee beans organically and they come in with a medium to light roast.

It seems that the reviewers can’t make up their mind.  I think what is happening is that people who prefer dark consider this to be on the lighter side of medium roast.

And, those that prefer light roast describe these beans as medium to dark.

All seem to agree that the roast falls into one of the medium spectrum of roast.  And, even those that said this roast was either lighter or darker than their typical tastes, still gave these beans a 5 out of 5 stars in their review.

We are also very pleased to support Colombian coffee brands whose beans are Fair Trade certified.

Cafe Don Pablo Colombian Supremo

The Cafe Don Pablo company produces this medium to dark roasted collection of Colombian coffee beans.  It is one of the more popular Colombian coffee beans.

These Cafe Don Pablo coffee beans are extremely popular on Amazon with close to 500 reviewers, one can only imagine how many are actually purchasing this product (since many customer don’t take the time to provide feedback).

Some describe the taste as “rich yet not bitter with a mellow aftertaste”.

Others, describe the taste as “clean, smooth, and with flavor that is not acidic”.

Many find these coffee beans to be very high quality.  In fact, they find them to have the quality of farmers that charge much more.

One reviewer said “I am enjoying this coffee…every bit as good as coffees of much higher price“.  Another said “Excellent value for the price!  I’ve had more expensive that wasn’t nearly as consistent or fresh as this“.

Don Pablo is a brand we at The Coffee Bean Menu are familiar with.  They are consistently popular with reviewers.  And, our research has found the reviews to be genuine purchasers as opposed to other sellers on Amazon that bump up their ratings with fake and/or purchased reviews.

100% Colombian Supremo Coffee, Fresh Roasted Coffee

Fresh Roasted Coffee produces this 100% Colombian Supremo Coffee using what some call a full city or a city+ roast.

To be environmentally conscious, Fresh Roasted Coffee uses a special roasting machine that has state of the art hybrid air drum roasting technology.

With this new technology, they claim to have reduced their greenhouse gas emissions by 80%.

100% Colombian Supremo beans claim these “cupping notes”:

  • Caramel
  • Honey
  • Milk Chocolate
  • Cherry

What we found that was a common thread in many of the reviews, was that the reviewers often talked about how they had purchased more than one bag of the 100% Colombian Supremo, and that they would keep coming back to Colombian coffee brands like this one.

Another positive about this product is that it has a roasted date.  Many of the reviewers had chosen next day shipping and the roast date was the date the beans where shipped.

Koffee Kult – Medium Roast Coffee Beans

I almost missed this Colombian powerhouse.  For some reason it doesn’t come up towards the top of the search engine results.

And, that’s a mistake by the search engines.

The only reason I noticed this brand was that while researching other Colombian coffee brands, these beans kept being mentioned as an alternative choice.

What’s the real story?

This is a smooth rich medium roast that many reviewer found to have a full body taste that was amazing.

Some thought the fullness of the taste was also very good for making espresso.

Why is that?

Typically you need something closer to a dark roast is for espresso.  So, that tells you how rich and flavorful coffee made from these beans is.

First Colony Organic Whole Bean Coffee, Colombian Santa Marta

Colombian Santa Marta is one of First Colony’s best coffee bean from Colombia.

It comes USDA Organic certified with the proper label on the bag.

That’s not all…

White Coffee Corp. provides the roasting for these beans and has over 75 years of experience in the game.

Here’s the deal:

The roast for these Arabica Santa Marta beans is described as a medium roast with great flavor.  One reviewer stated “no bitterness, not too sharp, very deep and rich tasting. Almost chocolaty”.

Many also talk about how reasonably these beans cost for being in the “organic” category of coffee beans.

Snoop Dog Likes Colombian Coffee?

While doing my research I took a break with Snoop Dog.

Snoop Dog teams up with Aygün Kazımova in this 2014 video.  Some amazing “hand” dancing and beautiful women in this video.  I’m guessing that’s how they got Snoop Dog to participate (although, it could also be he loves Colombian coffee).  So, grab a cup of your favorite Colombian and kick back and watch!

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dseGdBmMGXE

Related Articles

If you enjoyed this article, please read more information about coffee beans and where they grow in this article about coffee bean locations.

Hopefully we’ve made it clear that Colombia is one of the premier, if not the best country in the world when it comes to coffee bean production.  Any of the coffee beans we have reviewed would be a nice addition to you morning coffee rituals.  All of them are good Colombian coffee brands that you can’t go wrong with.

Do You Want The BEST Colombian Coffee Brand?

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We hope this article helps you to understand better what makes Colombian coffee beans great.  And, that it has has helped you find the best Colombian coffee brands in existence.


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