Quindío: the small department behind Colombia's coffee axis

Quindío is Colombia's second-smallest department, and its most concentrated coffee landscape. UNESCO listed the Coffee Cultural Landscape in 2011 for a reason: farms here are small, steep and family-run, and the towns — Salento, Circasia, Córdoba, Filandia — still look the way they did a century ago.

Altitude and micro-climate

Farms sit between 1,400 and 1,900 metres. Two harvests a year, volcanic soils from the Central Cordillera, and afternoon cloud that slows ripening. That is why a Salento lot tastes of pear and white caramel while Córdoba, thirty minutes away, gives cocoa and brown sugar.

Why we name the municipality

Café Quindío buys directly from 266 growing families and roasts in Armenia, the departmental capital. Our Specialty Harvest range keeps the municipality on the bag — Córdoba, Salento, Circasia — so you can taste the difference instead of reading about it.