My former student, a wonderful young lady name Estefania, berated me for saying that Colombian coffee sucked. Estefania comes from Colombia and she quite rightly pointed out that I am in land of Juan Valdez and Colombia has the best coffee in the world. This is true. It’s the type of coffee my wife and I purchase when in the United States. We love its nutty flavor.
The problem was that in our little corner of Neiva we never encountered any real coffee shops that served anything but nescafe. When I lived in Chile the locals always used to try and scare the gringos with stories of nescafe being made with pork blood. It’s an image I can never quite escape from when I drink nescafe. And I do drink it because, well, I’m an American and I need my coffee.
We’re now and Bogota where we’ve found plenty of coffee shops. Our B&B actually serves drip coffee (all hours of the day!).
So I apologize, Estefania (and thank you so very much for your many excellent suggestions and contacts while down here). The coffee is excellent.
3 replies on “My bad, the coffee doesn’t suck”
Mr. V, apologies accepted! I just simply couldn’t let you leave Colombia with that impression. I’m happy to know that you finally tasted some real coffee. While in Bogota if you can have a coffee in one of the OMA locations, known for having the best coffee in Bogota, or you can go to one of the Juan Valdez places that have now spread through out the country and even abroad.
Say Hi! to your girls!
Hugs to yall four!
If Colombia is like anywhere else that grows good coffee, all the good stuff is exported and locals are left to drink Nescafe. It’s not profitable to keep the good stuff locally.
“Best” is whatever spot you’re in: Puerto Rico-yum; Honduras, super; US-Hawi’an from Aren; Kenya,’the best’from Jp/Katie; Israel, ‘More please!”; Costa-Rica, HCH teacher; Germany, CH, Netherlands: Whatever, wherever… nice and hot! Camping? From whomever has the first pot! Nescafe! if that’s all you’ve got.