To tell you the history of coffee in Colombia , you must first read The History of Coffee in the World , where we take a tour of the first three coffee stops; starting with the origin of the red fruit in Africa, then how it moved to Asia to become one of the main distribution ports for the industry, and finally, how it conquered Europe to become the second most consumed beverage in the world, after water.
Now, in this installment of The Coffee Shop, you can continue this journey through the history of coffee around the world , and we'll tell you how it arrived in America and our beloved Colombia; a country that, over time, has become one of the most recognized for the quality of its coffees.
How coffee came to America
You're finally going to discover how coffee came to our continent! There are many stories about how coffee came to the "New World." Here, I'll tell you two famous legends.
The most widely told legend is attributed to Gabriel de Clieu, a French naval officer. It is said that in 1723 he obtained a branch of the tree directly from the Royal Botanical Garden in Paris. In 1714, the mayor of Amsterdam decided to give a coffee plant to King Louis XIV of France; the plant was planted at that time. The story goes that Gabriel protected and safeguarded the plant until it reached Martinique, a French island located near Venezuela and Puerto Rico. The plant adapted so well to the island that, after 50 years, there were approximately 19 million coffee trees.
Another legend attributes the Dutch with introducing the coffee plant to the Americas, bringing it to Dutch Guiana (Suriname). A man named Mourges, a fugitive from Cayenne (the capital of French Guiana) and hiding in Dutch Guiana, wished to return to French Guiana after suffering many hardships. He offered to bring the warden of the Cayenne prison coffee seeds (a plant that was already becoming highly sought-after) if he could return without increasing his punishment. The warden accepted this proposal, although it seems that this was more out of interest in recapturing the fugitive than out of interest in the coffee seeds (since initially, he didn't have much knowledge of the coffee plant). Later, he discovered the importance of the coffee plant, planted the seeds, and promoted its cultivation. He then sent them to Martinique, and from there began its spread throughout South America. Mourges was never heard from again.
Whatever the true story, or even both, there is no doubt that it was from Martinique that their expansion throughout the American continent began.
The history of coffee in Colombia
You've reached the last stop on this tour. Now we'll tell you the history of coffee in Colombia . Just as the previous stops revolve around stories and legends surrounding coffee, it's time to learn how this fruit made its way to our land and became one of the main export-quality products.
Historical data reveals that in 1730, the Jesuits brought the grain to New Granada, accompanied by travelers from the Guianas via Venezuela.
One of the oldest written testimonies known about the coffee plant in Colombia is attributed to the Jesuit priest JosΓ© Gumilla, who in his book El Orinoco Ilustrado (1730) recorded the presence of the product in the mission of Santa Teresa de TabajΓ©, carried out near the mouth of the Meta River in the OrinoquΓa.
The second written testimony was prepared by Archbishop-Viceroy Caballero y GΓ³ngora (1787), who in his report to the Spanish authorities recorded its cultivation in regions near GirΓ³n (Santander) and Muzo (BoyacΓ‘).
By 1835, the first harvests were recorded from the eastern part of the country, exported from the CΓΊcuta customs office. At this point, I want to tell you another legend, which refers to the Jesuit priest Francisco Romero, who played a fundamental role in helping to accelerate the expansion of coffee. It turns out that when the parishioners of the town of Salazar de las Palmas went to congregation, they had to plant coffee for each sin they confessed, thus being forgiven by God. This act greatly boosted the spread of coffee cultivation in this part of the country.
These seeds would have allowed the presence of coffee in the departments of Santander, in the northeast of the country, with its consequent spread, starting in 1850, towards the center and west through Cundinamarca, Antioquia and the area of ββββold Caldas.
The coffee crisis
Towards the end of the 19th and beginning of the 20th centuries, several events occurred that slowed the previously expanding growth of coffee cultivation. First, the fall in international prices, coupled with the Thousand Days' War, made it impossible to maintain the plantations in good condition, leading to a stagnation of the sector. However, this crisis affecting large estates became an opportunity for small coffee producers, and by the first decades of the 20th century, a novel coffee export development model based on the peasant economy had been consolidated, driven by internal migration and the colonization of new lands in the central and western parts of the country.
Colombian Coffee for the world
Another relevant fact is that, by the end of the 19th century, coffee production had increased from 60,000 sacks to more than 600,000 (noting that most of this production came from the farms of large landowners, financed by international capital). This positioned it as the third largest coffee producing country in the world, being its main source of foreign currency income, as it was its first export product.
National Federation of Coffee Growers of Colombia
Now, in 1927, the National Federation of Coffee Growers (FNC) was created with the aim of uniting peasants and small coffee producers to jointly address the logistics and marketing challenges that they could not have solved individually. Fortunately, by 1930, Colombia had established itself as the world's second-largest coffee producer.
In 1938, the FNC created the National Coffee Research Center (Centro Nacional de Investigaciones de CafΓ©, CenicafΓ©), to study aspects related to farm production, harvesting, processing, bean quality, the management and use of coffee byproducts, and the conservation of natural resources in Colombia's coffee-growing region.
The Coffee Shops
We conclude this historical journey through the origins of coffee and how it became the product most closely linked to Colombian history and culture by telling you that, between the late 20th century and the present day of the 21st century, the largest and most popular coffee shops in the world have emerged. Despite this beverage's many years of history, its evolution continues daily. We are at a time when an entire culture has developed around coffee.
In our coffee shop, you'll find the finest selections of coffee brands, from different regions, with different notes and flavors. You can check the origin of each coffee, its quality, and its rating. Visit our coffee shop and discover them!