 Coffee farms stretch across steep Colombian hills where every stage unfolds in the open. Foodie | Coffee In the hills of Colombia, coffee is a living thing long before it ever hits a machine. It begins its life on a branch, not in a hopper. Rows of trees climb steep slopes where the air is thin and the weather shifts without warning. Every stage happens out in the open, exposed to sun, rain and timing that cannot be rushed. BY HANAN, 3 minutes read Picking at the edge of ripenessCoffee grows as cherries. Small, waxy globes that shift from dull green to a rich, bruised crimson as they ripen. Timing is everything here. If a picker moves too early, the flavour is thin and grassy; if they wait a day too long, the fruit begins to ferment on the branch. On most Colombian plots, there is no machinery involved at this stage. It is all down to the human eye, with pickers selecting individual cherries one by one based on the exact shade of red and the give of the skin.  Ripe coffee cherries are picked by hand, one by one, at peak colour. Breaking down the fruitOnce the baskets are heavy, the race against the clock begins. The outer skins have to be stripped away to get to the seeds inside, a process known as pulping, which usually happens within a few hours to prevent rot from setting in. From this point, the path the coffee takes depends entirely on the farmer’s preference, shaped by the conditions of the land they are working on. The traditional Colombian way is the washed process. After the skins are removed, the beans sit in fermentation tanks to break down the sticky fruit layer that remains. This stage can last anywhere from twelve to thirty-six hours, dictated by the chill of the mountain air or the heat of the day. Only once the beans are perfectly clean are they rinsed with fresh water.
Drying under pressureDrying is perhaps the most nerve-wracking part of the whole ordeal. You will see beans raked out across concrete patios or perched on raised beds to soak up the sun. Farmers have to turn them constantly to make sure they dry at an even pace. If they dry too quickly, the beans might crack and ruin the batch. If the weather turns damp and they dry too slowly, mould can ruin weeks of hard work. It is a delicate balancing act shaped by climate, altitude and exposure, where stability matters far more than speed.  Beans are dried slowly in the sun, turned constantly to control the pace. The final check before exportWhen the beans are finally bone-dry, they are stored in a protective parchment layer until they are ready to be hulled and sorted. This is often the final moment of quality control, where any defective beans are plucked out by hand to ensure the final bag is consistent. Only then are they bagged up for the long journey to a roaster. Every single stage of this journey is governed by human touch rather than automation. Much of the heavy lifting still comes down to manual labour, keen observation and a gut feeling for timing. Small tweaks are made every day based on a shift in the wind, the altitude of the farm or the specific look of the crop. By the time those beans reach a café in Europe or the US, the hard work is already done. A barista does not actually create the flavour of the coffee. They simply find a way to let it out. What you find in your cup is the sum of a thousand tiny decisions made during the picking, the fermenting and the drying, long before a drop of hot water ever touches the grounds. Hanan: text • 12 April 2026 Related Articles Continue Exploring Dive deeper into stories, ideas and perspectives across our pages. Your voice!
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