Duluth Coffee Company Talks Recent Trip To Colombia

DULUTH, Minn. — A local coffee company took a recent trip to Colombia to learn more about where the drink comes from.

Duluth Coffee Company makes the trip every year to meet with their coffee producers. Their travels to the region of Huila are a cultural experience, building relationships and finding the best coffee they can.

The general manager says coffee is a cherry that grows in tropical environments, and he feels it is their responsibility to teach the public where it comes from. All of the farms they visit are small and supply a lot of coffee.

“The thing about these farms is all the coffee is hand-picked. So, in every cup of coffee on average it’s about 50 coffee cherries. And so, somebody has to physically pick 50 coffee cherries to get the 2 little seeds that we roast in the coffee beans,” said Sam Levar, general manager of Duluth Coffee Company.

The GM believes visiting coffees origin is what sets them apart from other coffee shops. He also talks about how it is important for them to highlight the producers and tell their story.

“It’s always really important, fun for us to bring a bag of coffee that we roasted here. We bring it back to Colombia and we give it to the producer and to see their like expression and their look on their face of just like pure happiness and joy that they get to sell their product to somebody in Minnesota and that coffee comes all the way back down to them and it has their name on it. It’s really powerful,” said Levar.

Duluth Coffee Company will also visit Guatemala, Costa Rica, Peru, and Brazil this year. They typically do origin reports and tastings on all of their travels. To find out when those are happening keep up with them on their social media pages.