Back to Bogotá
During a long overdue visit this October to La Familia in Colombia, Martin and Oscar spent a day getting up to scratch with the latest spots on the coffee scene in Bogotá.
MARTIN ON Bogotá:
Before we were heading into Bogotá proper we want to report on the Varietale shop at Bogota’s El Dorado airport. On our way to the beautiful island of San Andres we came across this shop still in the area prior to security checks. This shop ticks a lot of boxes and by far the best place we’ve come across in any airport.
There are a few things we really like about this shop. First of all it is very compact but the use of space is incredibly well designed. They packed in a brew bar, a good pastry display, plenty of retail shelving and bar seating inside and around the outside of the shop.
Secondly, the staff. Not only were our coffees were made to perfection, the staff is very knowledgable and happy to share their passion with customers. At an airport location we certainly weren’t expecting this.
We drank a Cappuccino Campesino (made with panela/sugarcane) followed by a Chemex prepared coffee from Quindio of the Wushwush variety.
Our stay at San Andres was very relaxing with lots of sun shine. Luckily though, we brought some coffee and our aeropress with us, as it is still a struggle to find a decent coffee on the island.
Back in Bogotá, Oscar and I took a day to explore some of the coffee spots we heard had been popping up in town. We headed first to the Usaquen district in the north of the city. A courtyard opened itself up to us, in one of the side streets off the main square. Here we found Colo, a coffeeshop and roastery.
The roastery is at the front of the courtyard with a spectacular designed coffee bar towards the back. In between some lush planting you can sip on your coffee and enjoy a pastry here. It is also a perfect place to get some remote working done.
We started with a flat white, made with (another) coffee from Quindio, this time of the Caturra variety. We were impressed by the coffee (as well as the space), so we decided to treat our selves to a Chemex made with their Sudan Rume beans. This rare but exceptional variety was discovered in Sudan near its border with Ethiopia and is bursting with red fruit and floral flavours, but very low-yielding.. Superb!
We left Colo with several bags of beans to take home to London. You may be lucky and find some on our batch brew in the shop.
Next stop on our exploration was Libertario Coffee, in Zona G (the Gourmet Zone). This cafe has a lovely outdoor space in the front of the building. We had a nice flat white here made with their espresso from Hula, We also stopped off for some nice lunch at Teriyaki nearby.
After lunch we moved down to the Javeriana university area to meet a friend at Varietale’s main shop. Our expectations were quite high following our visit at their shop in the airport. We ordered a Chemex with beans from Valle de Cauca. The shop is also the site of their roastery and has a nice large garden at the back. Expect many students here!
Our last stop of the day was at Azahar’s new shop in the Nogal area where we had a cortado with a little bite on the side. Another well designed shop!
MARTIN & OSCAR visited:
Varietale, Departures, Bogotá El Dorado Airport
Colo coffee, Carrera 6a #117-26
Libertario, Calle 70a, #5-37
Varietale, Calle 41, #8-43
Azahar, Carrera 9, #79a-23