When planning a visit to el Colombia’s coffee region, el Eje Cafetero, a coffee farm tour experience is a must on your list. What if we took it one step further and spent the night on a real working coffee farm? Finca El Ocaso, in Salento, is just the place.
Colombia’s Coffee Region
Colombia is the world’s third largest coffee producer in the world! About 8% each year is picked by hand. One of the few regions to still do so. This is because Colombia’s growing climate is all mountains, making it difficult for modern machinery and automated coffee production to effectively work.
The Colombian coffee region, or the coffee triangle, consists of the departments of Caldas, Risaralda, and Quindío. Here, you will find many coffee themed experiences, like El Parque del Café, the world’s largest theme park dedicated to coffee! It’s only right that on your list should also be a tour of a local coffee farm.
Coffee Tour
As I mentioned, Colombia is one of the few major coffee producers who still collect the coffee bean by hand. Much of that is due to terrain. Modern machinery is able to shake the ground just enough for the coffee beans to be automatically collected. However, that means a lot of “bad beans” fall through the cracks. In Colombia, because most coffee is grown on mountainsides, these machines can not function on inclined terrain. The benefit of this is that by collecting by hand, Colombian coffee is of the highest quality, not mass farmed.
During our tour of Finca El Ocaso, we learned the different enfermedades que suelen affecter el cafe, the quality that is sent around the world, growing season, and fermenting and roasting processes.
Finca El Ocaso grows, processes, and sells coffee right on site, as well as sells their coffee to major retailers nationwide. I’ve done coffee tours in Costa Rica and La Republica Dominicana, but this was the most informative and complete tour I have ever taken. We saw the whole process from where they grow (you can even pick your own beans), to where and how they ferment different styles of coffee, wash, roast, and even taste for ourselves!
The tour was very hands on. We got to touch, smell, and taste our way through the entire experience. I even got a chance to grind my own beans as we compared it to store bought. (Spoiler alert: freshly ground beans are clearly better and I have incessantly googled coffee grinders.)
Coffee Tasting
The tour finishes with a lesson on coffee brewing and of course, a tasting!
As a proud Cuban, my usual go to is a colada with whipped sugar. Safe to say that is not how coffee is served here in Colombia. At Finca El Ocaso, we learned the correct way to make a pour over and the incredibly rich and flavorful cup of tinto that you get from it.
Even as an avid coffee drinker, even as someone who has been on tours before, the coffee tour at Finca El Ocaso was the most comprehensive one I have ever been on. Plus, you are supporting a truly local run farm.
After the tour, you can take advantage of their beautiful on site cafe with stunning views of the valley surrounding the farm.
What’s better than having fresh coffee straight from the source? Waking up to fresh coffee right on the farm! Finca El Ocaso offers accommodation, where you can immerse yourself in the entire experience day and night. Unfortunately, it was all booked when we visited but it’s just another reason to return to Finca El Ocaso.
Check out this video BTS look at the tour and watch the full YouTube walkthrough
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