Thinking about Colombia, what comes to mind? Cocaine & coffee right? The country’s heyday on the former is thankfully past so tops on my list was most definitely to dive into the latter. No better way to do that then actually stay on a coffee farm in La Zona Cafetera, the Arabica-growing coffee mecca of Colombia, located just a 5hr bus ride South from Medellin near Manizales. The bus was more of a van jammed w 9 people plus the driver. Thankfully I had a bucket seat so while legroom was severely limited, there wasn’t anyone sitting on either side. I managed to convey to the driver before leaving that I wished to be dropped approximately 20 mins before Manizales at a pedestrian bridge with a restaurant nearby as I was going to a coffee farm, Hacienda Venecia. I was a tad bit anxious about it as I was unsure whether myself or the driver would recognize the site but turns out, there was nothing to worry about as it was very obvious. The driver swung over, dropped me & my backpack in the middle of nowhere & I wandered into the charming little restaurant near the bridge in order to call the ranch for a pickup & enjoyed fresh fruit juice while waiting.  
As an aside… Colombia is justifiably known, in addition to coffee, for its freshly made fruit juice & it has become a daily staple in my diet featuring both known & previously unknown fruits (guanabana???). I’m more than a little obsessed.
Back to the coffee… the ranch driver scooped me & we were on our way down a rutted rough one-laned road into a valley surrounded by lush hills. The coffee farm was lovely. Three different accommodations including expensive main house, middle-of-the-road guesthouse & economical dorm bed hostal. I chose the middle-of-the-road featuring private rooms & baths & super cool travelers along w a pool & great indoor/outdoor communal area. House breakfasts, lunches & dinners features delicious local food & all the coffee you can drink. The coffee tour the next morning was really interesting & informational but I may have tuned out for a second as it dawned on me I’d done similar (but not as in-depth) tours in numerous wineries throughout my years but had never thought before to learn about the coffee process. I drink quite a lot of coffee. Perhaps I drink more wine?
The balance of my 3-day stay was spent lazing about in hammocks, eating, drinking coffee & to stay somewhat active, going on hikes into the hills for pretty spectacular views of the valley. As a special treat, the owner kindly showed off the cacao he’s now growing on the farm. We picked a fresh cacao & sucked the pulp off the beans which to my surprise, tastes quite fruity. To make chocolate, the beans are dried for days (so flash forward like those magic cooking shows), then roasted til they popped, peeled to separate the bean from its outer coating, smashed & then ground for 24 hours. We tasted the cacao frequently as the grinding would constantly change the consistency & taste of the chocolate. By the next afternoon, it was a real bitter flowing dark chocolate. We first added sugar to make a proper bitter dark chocolate, sampled quite a bit, & then added milk powder to make a milk chocolate. We finally poured the chocolate into molds, cooled in the refridgerator & enjoyed our freshly made milk chocolate bars that evening for dessert. Pretty damn great if you ask me. Although I’m clearly not used to “manual” labor as the 2hrs spent peeling the cacao beans left me w borderline blisters. I’ve got a lot to do before I take up farming. The bonding coffee experience brought us together as did shots of the local Colombian anise flavored liqueur, Aguardiente, & local Caldas rum. All in, a phenomenal trip to the coffee region.