Colombian Coffee Convert

I love to travel, and when I do, I like to eat, drink and do what the locals eat, drink and do (although I do draw the line at eating weird animal body parts). When I studied abroad in college in London, I started to drink English breakfast tea with milk every morning, a regular occurrence for many years afterwards. I was never a coffee drinker, and when I managed to get through college and its many all-nighters without drinking coffee to stay awake, I never bothered with it and stuck with my tea.

Fast forward half a lifetime, including marriage and three kids, to when I spent two weeks in Italy with my oldest daughter, Lucy. There, I drank cappuccinos like the Italians. (We call them lattes here in the U.S. – espresso + steamed, frothed milk.) Back at home, I’d get a latte on occasion at a local coffeehouse, but never just coffee. That is, until my middle daughter, Sally, met and fell in love with a young man from Colombia (now my son-in-law).

When Sally, my husband and I traveled to Colombia to visit her then fiancé and meet his family, we spent a few days on a coffee farm in the Eje Cafetero (coffee triangle), south of Medellin. We learned all about coffee on an interactive tour of the plantation: from the growing and harvesting to the processing and roasting of the coffee beans. Best of all, we drank the farm’s coffee every day, and it was amazing! From that point on, I became an “official” coffee drinker -- but only Colombian coffee because it is by far the best! Life is too short to drink so-so coffee. Treat Yo’ Self everyday (like Donna and Tom in Parks and Recreation, one of my favorite TV shows), and drink Colombian!