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The Coffee Atlas
Colombia Antioquia
Colombia's historic coffee heartland, Antioquia is the country's second-largest producing department, with washed lots scoring 91-94 in real cupping data.
Flavor profile
avg. of 3 published reviewsScale: 1-10, Coffee Review / SCA-classic-form convention. Averaged from 3 independently published, dated Coffee Review scores of washed Antioquia lots (Oct 2018, Aug 2020, Apr 2021): a Caturra lot from Finca Arboleda, a Bourbon 'Chiroso' lot roasted by 94 Fresh Coffee, and a Caturra/Castillo blend lot. Not a category-wide statistical sample: these are specialty-grade, competition-adjacent lots that scored 91-94, well above the 81-point SCA cupping score Those Coffee People lists for its own traded commodity-grade Antioquia UGQ lot, and individual lots vary by variety, farm, and fermentation detail.
What it tastes like
Antioquia is where Colombian coffee began. Sucafina’s own account of the industry’s history traces cultivation’s 19th-century spread to Santander, Cundinamarca, Antioquia, and Caldas, with small producers in Antioquia leading the country’s early-20th-century coffee expansion. It has stayed near the top ever since: Colombia’s own production rankings put Antioquia second among coffee-producing departments in 2020, at 15.81 percent of national output, trailing only Huila.
Coffee grows across a wide elevation band here, roughly 1,300 to 2,000 meters, concentrated in the southwestern belt around Jardin, Andes, and Ciudad Bolivar, plus Jerico, where small farms work steep Andean terrain rather than large estates. The main crop runs October through December, with a smaller mitaca crop in May and June, per Perfect Daily Grind’s regional breakdown. Nearly all of it is washed, grown mainly on Caturra, Castillo, and the disease-resistant Colombia variety, with pockets of Bourbon and Typica.
That range shows up on the cupping table. Three independently dated Coffee Review lots, spanning an October 2018 Caturra from Finca Arboleda, an August 2020 Bourbon lot roasted by 94 Fresh Coffee in Taiwan, and an April 2021 Caturra/Castillo blend, scored between 91 and 94, with tasting notes running from date, cashew butter, and magnolia to dark chocolate, wisteria, and Bing cherry. That is well above the 81-point score Those Coffee People lists for its own traded commodity-grade Antioquia lot, the same country-wide split between a named specialty lot and an anonymous export grade that shows up across most Colombian departments.
A bag simply marked “Colombian” gives no hint which side of that split it is on, or which of Antioquia’s small towns it came from. A named farm or cooperative, on the other hand, is a real signal: the same washed process that keeps Huila’s cup clean does the same work here, letting Antioquia’s chocolate and citrus-zest sweetness come through rather than getting buried under fermentation notes.
How to brew it
Method fit for this origin · editorial guidance from roaster convention
Filtered clarity lets Antioquia's citrus-zest and floral top notes come through clean, the profile most roaster tasting notes for this origin are written around.
Balanced sweetness, chocolate depth, and medium-to-full body make Antioquia lots a forgiving single-origin shot, per multiple specialty roasters' own brew guidance.
Full immersion deepens the chocolate and nut notes but tends to mute the citrus-zest brightness that sets the highest-scoring Antioquia lots apart.
⚠ Fit tiers are editorial guidance drawn from roaster convention; no industry standard scores brew fit, so we show tiers, never invented numbers. Reflects brew guidance commonly published by specialty roasters for washed Colombia Antioquia lots, not an SCA-defined standard.
Altitude & region
Growing elevation, meters above sea level · this entry vs comparison bands
Antioquia's own range above is sourced from Nordic Approach's Colombian specialty coffee guide (see Sources & data), cross-checked against Those Coffee People's, Sucafina's, and current roasters' own lot listings, which cluster inside or close to it. Colombia Huila uses this Atlas's own sourced entry for that origin (its Denomination of Origin registration, 1,000-2,200 m); Ethiopia Yirgacheffe and Brazil Cerrado are shown for scale using the same commonly published origin bands already used elsewhere in this Atlas, not a lot-specific measurement.
Caffeine content
Caffeine by dry weight · each gold dot = 0.1%
Caffeine content tracks species, not origin, altitude, or processing: roughly 1.2% for Arabica versus roughly 2.2% for Robusta, close to double (see Sources & data). This entry is 100% Arabica; no credible per-origin caffeine figure exists at a category level, so any species comparison is by species only, not a measurement of this specific lot.
Where to buy it
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Fully washed Antioquia lot from smallholder farmers near Medellin on Castillo, Caturra, Colombia, and Typica, grown at 1,300-1,500 m and dried in solar dryers.
View lot→Washed Caturra lot sourced from smallholder farmers and cooperatives in Antioquia, roughly 1,400 m, with a brown-sugar-and-caramel profile.
View lot→Selection varies by seller; check roast dates and that the bag is labeled Antioquia specifically, not just generic Colombian.
View lot→Sources & data
- Nordic Approach: Complete Guide to Colombian Specialty CoffeeAntioquia altitude (1,300-2,000 m), main Oct-Jan harvest window, and general chocolate/red-fruit/citrus/caramel flavor profile; this source states predominantly washed processing as a general claim about Colombia, not Antioquia specifically
- Perfect Daily Grind: A Roaster's Guide to the Coffee-Producing Regions of ColombiaAntioquia's status as Colombia's second-biggest producing region and the Central zone's Oct-Dec primary / May-Jun secondary harvest split (the 'mitaca' label for the secondary crop is this entry's own terminology, not wording from this page)
- Those Coffee People: Antioquia UGQAltitude cross-check (1,400-2,100 MASL), Caturra/Castillo/Colombia variety mix, 14-18 hour fermentation, and the 81 SCA-point score for this traded commodity-grade lot (used for scale contrast in methodNote)
- Sucafina: Antioquia Excelso EPNamed-lot altitude cross-check (1,400-1,600 m) and Castillo/Caturra/Colombia variety for a specific current Antioquia offering
- Sucafina: On ColombiaAntioquia's role in the 19th- and early-20th-century founding of Colombia's coffee industry, alongside Santander, Cundinamarca, and Caldas
- Cafe Media: Ranking de los departamentos productores de cafe en Colombia2020 departmental production ranking: Antioquia second at 15.81% of national output, behind Huila at 18.37%
- Al Gusto Coffee Company: Colombia, AntioquiaCurrent live lot listing: altitude (1,300-1,500 m), variety, and washed processing detail
- Sustainable Harvest: Bright Outlook for the Antioquia HarvestNames Jardin, Andes, and Ciudad Bolivar as southwest Antioquia coffee-sourcing municipalities
- Antioquia Coffee: farmer-direct specialty coffeeNames Andes, Salgar, Pueblorrico, Jerico, Fredonia, Tamesis, and Jardin as the southwest Antioquia towns sourced from
- Coffee Review: Colombia Luis Alberto Montoya Antioquia, Temple Coffee and TeaCupping scores (1 of 3 averaged); October 2018; Caturra grown by Luis Alberto Montoya at Finca Arboleda
- Coffee Review: Colombia Antioquia La Papaya Bourbon Chiroso, 94 Fresh CoffeeCupping scores (2 of 3 averaged); August 2020; Bourbon variety
- Coffee Review: Private Reserve Colombia Antioquia, San Francisco Bay CoffeeCupping scores (3 of 3 averaged); April 2021; Caturra and Castillo
- Coffee Review: scoring methodology1-10 attribute scale definition
- Development of a fast and simple method to identify pure Arabica coffee and blended coffee by Infrared Spectroscopy (J. Food Sci. Technol., 2021, PMC8292507)Peer-reviewed, open-access: Arabica beans usually present 1.0 to 1.5% w/w caffeine and Robusta beans present 2.0 to 2.5% w/w, source for this entry's 1.2% Arabica / 2.2% Robusta figures