Coffee in Medellin: A Guide for US Travelers

Medellín has become one of the places American coffee drinkers put on a list — a city at 4,900 ft (1,500 m) in the middle of a coffee-growing department, where specialty cafés cluster in walkable neighborhoods and a good cup costs a fraction of what it does in Portland or Brooklyn.

This guide is for two kinds of reader: people planning a trip who want to know where to drink, and people who are not going but want to understand what Antioquia coffee actually is. If you are in the second group, skip to the last section.

What to expect as a US visitor

Prices. A filter coffee in a specialty café in Medellín typically runs a fraction of a US equivalent. Bring a card; most specialty cafés take them.

Language. Baristas in specialty cafés in El Poblado and Laureles usually speak some English. Outside those neighborhoods, less so.

Altitude. Medellín sits at about 4,900 ft (1,500 m). Water boils cooler here, which is one reason brewing recipes in Colombian cafés are not always transferable to a kitchen at sea level.

What to order. Ask for a filter or pour-over of whatever single origin they are featuring. Asking for "un tinto" will usually get you the everyday black coffee rather than the café's specialty offering — see what tinto actually is.

The neighborhoods

El Poblado

The most international neighborhood and where most visitors stay. Highest density of specialty cafés, the most English spoken, and the highest prices in the city. Provenza and the streets around Parque Lleras are the core.

Laureles

Flatter, more residential, increasingly where people who live in Medellín actually drink coffee. Cafés here tend to be quieter, more focused on the coffee and less on the scene.

Envigado

Technically a separate municipality just south of the city. More local, less polished, and worth a trip for the contrast.

Centro

Historic downtown, where coffee trading in Antioquia has happened for generations. Fewer third-wave cafés, more traditional coffee culture.

How to pick a good café anywhere in the city

Rather than a ranked list that goes out of date, here is what to look for — it works in Medellín and it works at home:

• A named origin on the menu. A farm and a municipality, not just "Colombian."
• A visible roast date on the bags behind the counter.
• A grinder being adjusted during service, not set once at open.
• Filter methods offered — V60, Chemex, AeroPress — alongside espresso. A café that only pulls shots is not showing you the coffee.
• Someone who can tell you the process — washed, honey, natural — without checking the bag.

Order a black filter coffee first. It hides nothing, and it tells you whether the milk drinks will be any good.

Beyond the city: the farms

Medellín is where Antioquia coffee is sold and drunk. It is not where it grows. The farms are two to three hours out, in municipalities like Ciudad Bolívar, Jardín, Jericó and Concordia, at altitudes well above the city.

Our own farm, Hacienda Las Mercedes, is in Ciudad Bolívar, at 5,900 ft (1,800 m) in the Farallones del Citará. Four generations of the same family have farmed it, and everything happens there: planting, harvesting, processing, drying, hulling and roasting. Cherries are picked by hand over six selective passes and dried slowly on raised beds.

If you have time outside the city, a farm visit will teach you more about coffee than ten cafés will. You see the six passes, the drying beds, the difference between a washed and a natural lot before either has been roasted.

If you are not going to Medellín

The reason to care about Antioquia coffee from a kitchen in the US is that the region's altitude, its two harvests a year and its terrain — steep enough that machines cannot pick it — produce a particular profile: balanced, sweet, clean acidity, medium body. It is the profile most Americans picture when they think of good coffee.

The version of that coffee you can get without flying is one shipped from the farm rather than routed through an exporter, an importer and a domestic roaster. Our six lots are roasted after you order and ship within 48 hours:

• Tradition, washed — $14.99
• Honey, honey process — $16.99
• Natural, natural process — $19.99
• Silver, honey process — $26.99
• Bronze, honey with extended maceration — $26.99
• Gold, a limited blend of Geisha, Java and Wush Wush — $36.99

Each is an 8.5 oz (240 g) bag, whole bean or ground. Shipping is calculated at checkout.

Frequently asked questions

Is Medellín a good base for a coffee trip?

Yes — it has the international flight connections, the specialty café density and road access to Antioquia's coffee municipalities. The Eje Cafetero around Salento and Manizales is more famous for coffee tourism, but Medellín is easier to reach and closer to working farms that are not built for visitors.

Can I bring coffee back to the US?

Roasted coffee is generally permitted in personal baggage. Green (unroasted) coffee is treated differently, and rules change, so check the current CBP and USDA guidance before you travel.

Is coffee in Colombia better than coffee in the US?

Not automatically. Colombia historically exported its best lots and kept the lower grades for the domestic market, and that habit has only partly reversed. A specialty café in Medellín serves excellent coffee; an ordinary Colombian restaurant often does not.

Keep reading

If you are travelling and want to bring beans back, where to buy Colombian coffee in Medellín or from the US covers both routes. And the farm, the mill and the roastery behind it describes the operation two to three hours out of the city, where the coffee actually comes from.

Start with the farm

Whether or not the trip happens, the coffee can. See the current lots in our specialty coffee collection.