jueves, 3 de mayo de 2018

Colombian Tinto 101: Is it Coffee?

Tinto is the popular go-to beverage in Colombia, and they distinguish it from coffee.

Colombia is a country with massive renown for their coffee. Producing 100% Arabica beans and prized for its clean, characteristic taste, medium/high acidity and body, and a pronounced, complete aroma. It comes in second place among the world’s top coffee-producing countries (after its Latin-American brother, Brazil), but is considered by many Caffeine lovers to be the first country as for the quality of the coffee beans.

Regions like those of Caldas, Risaralda, and Quindio, with their big tropical forests growing at high altitudes, host huge plantations of Arabica coffee. Colombian coffee, ranging from the strong-flavored Medellin to the delicate, intricate Armenia variety, is exported and greatly appreciated all over the world.

However, like many other Latin-American coffee growing countries, finding a top-notch quality cup of coffee on the streets can be quite a challenge. A notion we have all posed ourselves is the following: if countries like Ecuador, Peru, and Colombia are producing some of the best beans in the world, then they should have superior coffee available everywhere, don’t they?

The reality can be quite different from expected, in big cities like Lima and Bogota, artisanal coffee shops have flourished, reclaiming some of the top beans for themselves. But most of the Colombian population is not drinking a pour over of a single origin, as a matter of fact, most of these nations are drinking instant coffee.

The best quality beans are exported out of the country and sold to places like the US and Europe, therefore, the people in Colombia are basically left with whatever remains. Often, they turn these unsuitable beans into instant coffee. In Cartagena, as in many other places around Colombia, they have turned these “dregs” into something different and with a unique flavor. A beverage named “tinto”. In many Latin-American countries, tinto might be a word associated with red wine (as in, vino tinto) but in Colombia, tinto has a different significance.

Despite the massive coffee bean exportation, coffee in Colombia is widely consumed and comes in three main variations, which are tinto, cortado and chaqueta.

Tinto coffee is the most common coffee in Colombia. It’s a small-cup-served black coffee, similar to an espresso in that matter. Tinto coffee in Colombia is often fixed with the less fine coffee beans, the ones that don’t get exported.

To the average coffee lover, the word “cortado” may suggest a very small cup of coffee, like the Italian “corto”, but in Colombia a cortado coffee is a cup of tinto with the addition of hot milk, similar to the Italian “macchiato” that we see in most coffee shops.

Now, a chaqueta coffee in Colombia is a coffee laced with aguapanela, a syrup made with raw sugar melted in hot water. Aguapanela is used in Colombia to prepare other traditional beverages: in the summertime, it’s often served cold with the addition of fresh lemon juice, while in the mountain regions it’s served warm, usually along with salty cheese.

Colombian Tinto 101

Fun Trivia: you can’t go more than 50 feet in Colombia without someone stopping you and offering a cup of tinto. Sometimes you will see men pushing these carts with brightly colored thermoses lined up on top, and other times, men just carry the thermoses over their backs, with little, white plastic cups poking out.

If you translate tinto to English it reads “ink”, and the coffee that they serve in Colombia is of a thick, dark nature. The brew is often sweet, and sometimes it’s flavored with canela (cinnamon) and occasionally, you’ll see a piece of South American cheese floating on top of it.

Colombians are quite happy with their tinto. As a matter of fact, a couple of years ago, Colombia even imported the rejected beans of Ecuador in order to make more of their beloved tinto for local consumption.

But tinto is more than just a variety of coffee. It’s part of many Colombian social practices, tinto is highly regarded in their culture. It’s seen as a way to start the day with energy and glee. You offer someone a cup of tinto and it’s a way of saying “hey, let’s get to know each other over a cup of coffee”. A few years back, they came up with a massive publicity campaign that had the slogan of “Tomémonos un tinto, seamos amigos”, which translates to “Let’s have a tinto, let’s be friends”. Today the before mentioned men pushing the carts are more than happy to stop and have a chat while they pour you a simple tinto, always served in a plastic cup. For the small price of COP$ 300 (that’s about 15 cents), at the end of the day you not only can indulge in this modest cup of java, but, in a pretty addition, you could make a friend.

As you have read, That Coffee Roasters brings a different perspective to the world of coffee. Did you enjoy our article? Do you have any questions about it? Then follow us on our social networks and leave your comments and questions in the section below.