Coffee: the finca and the tinto

From the cherry to the cup

1. la cosecha The harvest The main harvest runs from October to December, when the farm needs many pickers from nearby villages.
2. a mano Picked by hand, bean by bean Only the red fruits, called cherries, are picked. They start at six, in the fog.
3. el canasto A basket at the waist A good picker collects a hundred kilos a day; pay is by the kilo, not the hour.
4. lavar y secar Washed and dried in the sun In the afternoon the beans are washed and laid out to dry.
5. exportar The best is exported On the farm they drink the rest. Colombians joke that they drink the coffee nobody else wanted.
6. el jeep An old Willys jeep takes the sacks down The jeeps of the 1950s are still the trucks of the coffee region.

• The main harvest is from October to December; coffee is picked by hand, only the red cherries, with a basket at the waist, and pay is by the kilo.
• The beans are washed and sun-dried; the best coffee is exported and the rest is drunk on the farm.
• Old Willys jeeps still carry the sacks down to the village.

El café se recoge a mano, grano por grano.

Coffee is picked by hand, bean by bean.

Solo se cogen los frutos rojos, que se llaman cerezas.

Only the red fruits are picked, which are called cherries.

El mejor café se exporta; en la finca se toma el resto.

The best coffee is exported; on the farm they drink the rest.

The Coffee Cultural Landscape

Don Alberto's finca stands at 1,800 metres near Salento; his family has grown coffee for four generations, and coffee grows best between 1,200 and 2,000 metres. The region is a UNESCO World Heritage site, the Paisaje Cultural Cafetero: in the words of its official site, a coffee culture of hillside and mountain, in the central and western ranges of the Andes, across the departments of Caldas, Quindío, Risaralda and Valle del Cauca, 51 municipalities and 858 coffee-growing veredas, worked by families generation after generation.

Today the farm also receives tourists; coffee tourism now pays part of many small farms' bills.

• The finca in the piece is near Salento, at 1,800 metres; the family has grown coffee for four generations; coffee grows best between 1,200 and 2,000 metres.
• The Paisaje Cultural Cafetero is a UNESCO World Heritage site covering the departments of Caldas, Quindío, Risaralda and Valle del Cauca: 51 municipalities and 858 coffee-growing veredas in the central and western Andes, described as a coffee culture of hillside and mountain worked by families across generations.
• Coffee tourism now pays part of many small farms' bills.

Su familia cultiva café desde hace cuatro generaciones.

His family has grown coffee for four generations.

Hoy la finca también recibe turistas.

Today the farm also receives tourists.

Ordering a tinto

• In Colombia a tinto is a small black coffee, not red wine; it is served without pause through a wake and ordered between friends in a Bogotá café.
• Coger is a normal verb in Spain and Colombia but rude in Mexico and Argentina, where people say agarrar or tomar.

el tinto

a small black coffee

la finca

the farm

la cosecha

the harvest

el recolector

the picker

el grano

the bean

coger

to pick, to take

don / doña

a mark of respect before a first name

Mientras tanto se sirve café, tinto, sin azúcar o con mucha, y no se deja de servir en toda la noche.

Meanwhile coffee is served, tinto, without sugar or with a great deal, and it does not stop all night.

Para mí un tinto, por favor.

A black coffee for me, please.

Don Alberto tiene una finca de café cerca de Salento.

Don Alberto has a coffee farm near Salento.