Coffee History

Today we travel to four different states with our Blue Diamond award-winning blend: Ethiopia, Colombia, India and Brazil.

You will have already tasted the four single-origin coffees, now taste them in blends and discover how they enhance each other, creating a unique and complex taste.

Ethiopia

Let’s start from Ethiopia, the country from which the coffee plant originated and therefore the traditions of the whole world around it.

Coffee in Ethiopia has always had a sacred meaning, becoming an integral and indispensable part of the economy, politics, rituals, language… in short, of the whole lifestyle of the country.

The coffee ceremony follows a precise ritual, giving great importance to conversation and human relationships. It is performed three times a day, by the woman of the house in a white dress with colored edges, serving three rounds of coffee to each participant, and each round has its own meaning.

The beans are still roasted by hand with a pan placed directly on the fire, always kept in motion by the same woman. After that they are ground and left to infuse in the traditional coffee pot.

Coffee in Ethiopia is truly considered a small great miracle of nature, as there are no large plantations in the area, as happens in other states, but it is the result of the work of many small producers and local families who often directly cultivate the plants on their own ” garden”. There are about 12 million of these small realities.

Since everything is very domestic, the farmers do not use chemicals or substances that are toxic to the environment, leaving the land pure and free to breathe, placing the coffee plants in the shade of other crops and tall trees.

All this makes Ethiopian coffee one of the finest in the world, with aromatic, intense and flawless beans.

On the palate it has fresh and delicate aromas of citrus fruits, red fruits and flowers, intensified by more spicy notes, or hints of chocolate, dried fruit. The sweet notes are often traced back to honey and caramel.

Colombia

Now let’s fly to Colombia, one of the most evocative coffee-growing areas in the world, so much so that its landscapes are a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

L’Eje Cafetero is a rural area that extends in several departments towards the south of the state, beyond Medellin. The best known are those of: Caldas, Quindio, Risaralda, Tolima and Valle del Cauca.

Here life flows slowly, in contact with and respecting nature, made up of simplicity and centuries-old cultural traditions.

Coffee has conditioned the economy, the lifestyle, the traditions, the uses and customs of the small historic villages of the farmers, who hand down knowledge and skills from father to son.

When I drink a cup of Colombia Supremo Finca la Meseta I close my eyes and imagine myself in the beautiful spa areas, immersed in the vast plantations of an intense emerald green, embraced by cloud forests, between steep valleys and peaks with glaciers, kissed by the sun and overlooking the Andes National Parks.

Here is the hacienda from which we buy our Colombian coffee, from the Finca called La Meseta.

Region dotted by the Andean forest, with a climate between 8° and 24° centigrade, between 1100 and 2000 m of altitude and with constant rains all year round. All this makes the land perfect for growing a very high quality coffee.

And to honor their product, the recognedores, i.e. the pickers of the red berries, always work manually, making a careful selection and picking only the cherries that are perfectly ripe.

The taste is soft, fresh, fruity, floral and almondy. Smell the cup of Blue Diamond and you will feel this intense almond note!

India

Let’s now move on to India among the Baba Budan Giri hills, below the Tropic of Cancer, constituting the main region for the production and consumption of the dark drink.

Specifically, with our Kalledevarapura, we are located in the region of Karnataka and Tamil Nadu.

These regions are cool throughout the year and enjoy abundant rainfall. The soil is deep and fertile. Furthermore, the peculiarity of this territory is the presence of tall trees, which allow coffee plants to be grown in the shade, sheltering them from the strong and hot direct sun.

These conditions create fertile ground for growing great coffee!

The same plantations then not only cultivate coffee, but also pepper, cardamom, cinnamon, cloves, nutmeg and 45 other types of plants. This botanical heterogeneity gives the beans a great aromatic variety and intensity in taste.

In short, I imagine a trip to the Indian plantations with my eyes closed and my nose turned up, ready to capture all the imaginative automatic nuances and the heady scent of flowers, fruits and spices.

Overall, Indian arabica coffees have good acidity and a good creaminess, rich in aromas: from tea leaves to chocolate, from ripe pulp fruit to red fruits, from chocolate to honey and from nuts to spices and tobacco. In short, a riot of taste.

Brazil

Let’s end our journey around the world by returning to Brazil, the number one state for the quantity of coffee produced and sold in the world, and for this reason it is also one of the most consumed and well-known coffees!

In Brazil there are a multitude of crops, both large as far as the eye can see, which use industrial means and produce poor quality coffee, as well as micro-farms of Specialty Coffee. In short, the coffee growing area is vast and varied.

The two departments known for producing quality coffee are the Cerrado region, where our Bom Chocolate comes from, and the Minas Gerais region southeast of the former.

The Cerrado region obtained the IP mark (Indication of Origin) in 2005 and the DO, therefore also recognized with the Denomination of Origin mark, from 2014. This is characterized, as already mentioned, by the quality of the raw beans and by the unique climatic combinations . Furthermore, the coffee plants have intense blooms, with uniform ripening of a concentrated crop, which together with a perfect definition of the climatic seasons with hot, humid summers and mild, dry winters.

A set of perfectly synchronized variables that create unique and ideal conditions for our beloved plant with bright red fruits.

The authentic Cerrado Mineiro coffee has intense aromas, with a caramel taste and hints of dried fruit, with a delicate citrus acidity and a preponderant flavor of very persistent chocolate.

I imagine Brazil as vast, made up of hills and plateaus between 900 and 1600 meters above sea level. Greenery and fields as far as the eye can see with a clear sky that contrasts with the land.

So, with a taste of our Blue Diamond you will first find yourself in central Africa in Ethiopia, with fresh and almost pungent hints of citrus and flowers. 

Soon after comes the delicacy of Colombian fruit, accompanied by the aromatic intensity of Indian spices, to finally find itself in Brazil, with notes of toasted, caramel and chocolate, among the cocoa plants. 

This blend is excellent in a filter, with a mocha, in an espresso and even cold!

Find out below how to best prepare it

https://www.caffeernani.com/en/category/how-to-make-coffee/

Have a good trip!