Wake up and smell the Venezuelan Coffee
Updated: Nov 18, 2019
Even though Latin America was late in getting into the profitable work of coffee production, nowadays South American countries produce the majority of coffee consumed worldwide and Venezuela is amongst them. Coffee requires special climate conditions to grow and produce the best beans in terms of flavour and aroma and these characteristics largely depend on the soil, altitude and other elements. Venezuelan Café has got a lot to offer and even though today it produces less than 1% of the world’s coffee, its distinctive characteristics make of this a potentially great coffee, under proper farming, toasting and roasting techniques.
Venezuela produces both varieties “Arabica“ and “Robusta“ and coffee is grown almost across the whole nation with the best beans produced in:
West: Táchira (Rubio city), Mérida, Trujillo (Boconó city). These are famously known as Maracaibos as they’re shipped through a port in Maracaibo City.
Centre-West: Lara, Portuguesa (in the city of “Biscucuy“ the first national coffee producer, Chabasquén and Ospino cities), Yaracuy.
North-East: Monagas, Sucre
Plains: Guárico
Coastal Mountains: La Guaira (Caracas Coffee)
Mérida and Táchira areas are known as the best quality coffee regions producing “fine washed coffee“. On his book All about Coffee, William Harrison Ukers describes Venezuelan coffees according to producing areas, highlighting Caracas as “bluish in colour, light body, with a peculiar flavour“, and Mérida and Táchira as “best of Maracaibo grades, fine washed, with a waxy colour, good appearing roast, good body and delicate flavours“.
Furthermore, according to the worldatlas, Venezuela is ranked 26th with 30.000 metric tones which equates to 66.138.000 coffee pounds per year, giving this coffee a relatively positive outcome.
Thanks to good soil, altitude and wether conditions in general, Venezuelan coffee could be ranked as one of the best coffees in the world as it used to be in the past, almost at the same level of Colombian coffee, however, poor farming and transformation techniques as well as lack of investment in this industry have led to quality decline. Nowadays, with the socioeconomic crisis in the country, Venezuelan coffee entrepreneurs are starting to invest on this important crop again, putting all efforts in developing premium or gourmet coffee in order to compete again in international markets.
Giveafew wants to do its part in the resurgence of Venezuelan coffee by helping coffee growers improve their farming techniques which will result in premium-quality beans, the main coffee source, and better livelihoods for those who carry out the hard labour of cultivating and harvesting this golden crop. A helping hand through your donation will make a difference in the lives of many coffee farmers!
TASTE AIDPRESSO!
Sources
https://www.worldatlas.com/articles/top-coffee-producing-countries.html
Harrison U., W (1922) All about Coffee. New York: The Tea and Coffee Trade Journal Co
https://www.tripsavvy.com/south-american-coffee-production-1635466