Colombian Tolima Single Origin Coffee

Roast: Medium  |  Region: Tolima, Colombia  |  Altitude: 1,500–2,100m
Cup: Medium acidity, rounded body, dark chocolate, mango, peach, real complexity

A small group of farmers formed Café del Macizo in 2003, in the countryside municipality of Planadas in Tolima. Twenty-odd years on it's 59 lifetime growers who have spent those decades pooling knowledge and resources — which in coffee is worth considerably more than any single piece of equipment.

They farm the foothills of the Cordillera Central, the middle of Colombia's three Andean ranges, between 1,500 and 2,100 metres. It is, by every account, a genuinely beautiful place to grow anything.

Excelso EP grade — the export classification for well-sorted Colombian beans — washed and sun dried, from Caturra, Castillo and Typica. What lands in the cup is more interesting than "Colombian coffee" usually implies: dark chocolate as the base, then mango and peach coming through as it cools, with a rounded body and complexity that keeps revealing itself down the cup.

This is the one we hand people who think they already know what Colombian coffee tastes like.

Brew it: drip, pour-over, or French press. Let it cool a few minutes before you judge it — the fruit arrives late.

Pairs with: a novel you've been putting off. This one has patience.