"Not all coffee is equal. Colombian specialty coffee earns its name through altitude, care, and generations of knowledge — none of which can be faked."

T I N T I C O F F E E C O L O M B I A

The Origin Advantage

Why Colombia Produces Different Coffee

Colombia's coffee-growing regions sit along the Andes mountain range, between 1,200 and 2,100 metres above sea level. This altitude slows the ripening of the coffee cherry, allowing sugars and complex flavours to develop over a longer period.

In Antioquia, the micro-climate of the mountains creates the perfect balance of sun, cloud cover, and rainfall. It is not an accident — it is geography working in our favour.

The result is a bean of exceptional density, clarity, and taste — what the industry calls specialty grade.

2.100m

Max growing altitude — where beans ripen slowest and best

3rd

Largest coffee producer in the world

100%

Arabica — the premium species, hand-selected

2x

Arabica — the premium species, hand-selected with two harvests per year

How a Coffee Cherry Becomes a Specialty Bean

The Farm Process

Seeds from the best mother plants are germinated in shaded nurseries for 6–8 months. Farmers select the Castillo variety — a Colombian-developed cultivar prized for its disease resistance and clean cup profile.

Young plants grow on steep hillside plots at 1,500–2,100m under shade trees. No industrial machinery — only mountain terrain and human hands. A tree takes 3–4 years to produce its first full harvest.

Unlike mechanized farms that strip entire branches, Colombian pickers select only perfectly ripe red cherries, returning to the same tree multiple times across weeks. This single practice is the foundation of specialty quality.

Cherries are pulped the same day of harvest, fermented in water tanks for 24–36 hours to dissolve the fruit layer, then rinsed. This delivers the clean, bright cup profile Colombian coffee is famous for.

Washed beans are spread on elevated African drying beds and turned by hand every few hours. Drying takes 10–20 days. Rushing this step destroys the quality built up over years of cultivation.

Beans are sorted by size, weight, and colour. Defective beans are removed. Only beans scoring 80+ on the SCA scale pass. This is where Tinticoffee's standard is enforced — no compromises.

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Beans are roasted in small drum batches to a medium roast — preserving Antioquia's characteristic caramel, vanilla, and cocoa notes. Each batch is cupped (tasted professionally) before approval.

Within 48 hours of roasting, beans are sealed in valve-equipped bags that release CO₂ while keeping oxygen out. Each 250g bag includes the farm, altitude, variety, and process — full traceability, no exceptions..

Understanding Specialty Coffee

What the Label Means

"Specialty" is not a marketing word — it is a graded standard set by the Specialty Coffee Association (SCA). Here is what it means in practice.

Every specialty coffee is evaluated on a 100-point scale by trained Q-Graders. Aroma, flavour, acidity, body, balance, and sweetness are each scored. A coffee must score 80 or above to be classified as specialty. Tinticoffee's beans consistently score 83–86.

The SCA score

Specialty grade allows zero category-1 defects in a 250g sample. Each bag you buy has been sorted to that standard. Commodity coffee — the kind in supermarket tins — has no such requirement.

You know the farm, the municipality, the altitude, and the farmer. This traceability ensures accountability at every step — you can trace your cup back to the exact hillside in Antioquia.

Zero defects allowed

Single Origin Traceability

Tasting profile

Tinticoffee's medium roast offers a clean, sweet cup with notes of caramel, dark chocolate, and a soft citrus finish. Low bitterness. Smooth body. The washed process ensures clarity — you taste the bean, not the roast.

Direct trade, fair price

Specialty coffee pays farmers 2–5× the commodity price. When you buy Tinticoffee, you directly support a small family farm in Antioquia — not a multinational commodity trader.

Variety Castillo

Developed by Colombia's national coffee research center (Cenicafé), the Castillo variety resists coffee leaf rust while preserving all cup qualities of Arabica — decades of Colombian agronomic research in a single bean.

The journey from Farmer to cup

How It Reaches You

Most commodity coffee passes through six or more intermediaries before reaching the consumer. Tinticoffee's model is different: we work directly with the producing farm to bring you a shorter, cleaner, traceable chain.