Diversity might be the best concept to describe Colombia; as a country, it is home to 32 departments, 22 of which are major coffee producers, with different qualities in their flavors, textures, and sensations, because drinking coffee is not just a beverage with many particularities, It is also a sensory and emotional experience depending on the preparation and the moment in which it is being tasted. Here we can reach from sea level to the highest peaks of the mountain. We are privileged to have a unique geography that encompasses all thermal zones, from the warm, dry, and everlasting snows, from whose melting ice rivers and lakes are born, where the earth symbolically meets the sky. Located in northeastern Colombia, in the Caribbean region, the department of Magdalena is the cradle of ancestral traditions, tourism experiences, and coffee.
Discover the Magdalena and its coffee
In the case of coffee produced in the department of Magdalena, an Arabica coffee of the Castillo, Colombia, Caturra, Típica, Cenicafe1, and Tabi varieties, cultivated by peasant, indigenous, and Afro-descendant communities mainly in four municipalities: Ciénaga, Aracataca, Santa Marta, and Fundación. Since 2017, it has been called Sierra Nevada Origin coffee, which is characterized sensorially by a clean and balanced cup with a medium-high body, medium acidity, and chocolate flavors. Its fragrance and aroma are perceived with sweet and nutty notes. Magdalena coffee is imbued with the feeling of the Sierra Nevada along with the power of the nature that surrounds it. , let's remember that it is the largest coastal mountain in the world, declared by UNESCO as a Biosphere Reserve and World Heritage Site and as such is the epicenter of a coffee, ecological and magical experience.
The department of Magdalena has special conditions for coffee planting. Due to their geographical and climatic characteristics, they are planted in total shade to neutralize some of the solar radiation and water shortages during the months of October and February, when the main harvest takes place, generating a program called "Sustainable Specialty Coffees" for the protection of biodiversity and ecological and organic farming systems.
Characteristics of coffee by municipality.
Municipality of Aracataca.
From the fantastic yellow butterflies of Macondo we arrive at the municipality of Aracataca, known worldwide as the birthplace of Gabriel García Márquez's literary novel, It is a coffee-growing municipality where the cup creates stories and magical realism in the flavor , ideal for an espresso coffee due to their body and low acidity, has a high coffee production in more than 18 villages, considering that it is a small municipality, influenced by the customs of northern Santander, the Kogui and Arawak indigenous people, show that the harvest of this region has the union of the best flavors with ancestral practices. Its largest production is made by people between 41 and 60 years old, generating an average of 15,281 sacks of 60 kg each and resulting in a high generation of direct and indirect jobs and economic growth for the municipality.
Municipality of Ciénaga
If we travel through the municipalities of Magdalena, we can notice that at first glance there are no coffee plantations ; you have to concentrate your attention in the middle of the fog to see how the trees cover the coffee plantations throughout the Sierra Nevada. Ciénaga is considered the sixth municipality in coffee production in Colombia. , coffee occupies more than 40% of the planted area, has approximately 58% of the production of the department of Magdalena, resulting in 168,904 sacks of 60 kilos each of dry parchment coffee, and in turn is a major generator of employment for the region.
Municipality of Fundación
It is the most populated municipality in the department of Magdalena, after Ciénaga and Zona Bananera. A large portion of the coffee producers are over 61 years old, which indicates that this is an ancestral process that has been maintained for generations. Coffee is not the main activity of this municipality, but there is a high production , on average 2,813,667 kilos of dry parchment coffee.
Municipality of Santa Marta
Capital of the department of Magdalena, historically known as the embarkation point for the conquest, colonization, and independence; the final resting place of liberator Simón Bolívar and the cultural, sporting, and ancestral epicenter of Colombia. It produces approximately 45,947 60-kg bags of dried parchment coffee. A particularity of this region is that the coffee bean shows good growth , which provides a highly significant performance factor, alluding to the local saying “ coffee is a sacred gift of abundance from Mother Earth.”
The common of People ignore that the Caribbean also produces coffee and that Magdalena is proof of this. , in more than 15 thousand hectares planted by indigenous ancestors, peasants and coffee growers, there are 4 thousand hectares planted largely by women heads of household, have made it the ideal window to showcase a smooth drink, full of nuances that denote an ancestral coffee tradition with the particular seal of fog that takes us from the sea to the sky.