19 cafés in 11 citys. Places change: check opening hours before you go.
A tiny room beside the Primada cathedral, a few steps from Plaza de Bolívar, that tradition dates to 1816 and to Josefa Caicedo, who began selling sweets to churchgoers. It took its name from the false door of the cathedral opposite, and has served hot chocolate since around 1870.
Order: Chocolate santafereño · Tamal santafereño · Ajiaco
💡 Dip the cheese into the hot chocolate, the Bogotá way.
A roaster that started in a small house in the south of Armenia with three people, founded by Nubia Motta Camargo. It now has a café-restaurant in Armenia and dozens of coffee shops around Colombia, plus coffee sweets such as Cafecitas.
Order: Quindío coffee · Cafecitas coffee cookies
💡 Pick up coffee sweets and beans as gifts.
Fewer recent sources for this one: check it's open before you go.
An old confectioner's where Bogotanos come in from the cold for chocolate santafereño served as a plate, with cassava bread, cheese bread, butter and cheese on the side. The cup arrives empty and is filled to the brim from a big jug.
Order: Chocolate santafereño with cheese · Tamal for breakfast
💡 Break the cheese into the chocolate and let it melt, then spoon it out.
Fewer recent sources for this one: check it's open before you go.
The hilltop terrace of Café San Alberto in Buenavista, Quindío, home of a brand that calls itself the most awarded coffee in Colombia. Visitors come for tastings and coffee experiences with the farm country spread below.
Order: Coffee Baptism tasting
💡 Open Monday to Thursday 10:00 to 17:30, weekends and holidays until 18:30.
A coffee-culture tour in the Quindío landscape: you walk the coffee trail with arrieros and chapoleras, help with the harvest, follow the bean through processing and finish with the 'Rito del Café'. There is also a cacao-to-chocolate tour.
Order: Coffee culture tour · Rito del Café
💡 Tours leave every 30 minutes from 9:00, the last at 15:00, every day of the year. About 20 minutes from Armenia.
Juan Valdez Café is the coffee-shop chain the National Federation of Coffee Growers launched in 2002 to promote Colombian coffee; the first shop opened in Bogotá. This branch in the old city offers a large range of coffees and cakes.
Order: Colombian coffee · Cake
Fewer recent sources for this one: check it's open before you go.
A bookshop and café in the old city with a good shelf of books on Cartagena in Spanish and some in English. It is a quiet place to rest with a coffee and cake.
Order: Coffee and cake
A family that has grown coffee for more than 60 years opened this hacienda to visitors with a coffee tour and rooms among the plantation. More than 150 bird species have been recorded on the farm.
Order: Coffee tour with tasting
💡 Stay overnight to catch the early birdlife.
An open-air café beside the Casa Museo Otraparte, the home of writer Fernando González. It grew from his own wish for a place to drink coffee, talk and read among the books he loved.
Order: Tinto · Coffee with a book from the museum bookshop
💡 Pair it with a visit to the free house museum next door.
A working coffee farm of more than 100 years that opened its doors to travellers in 2009. The daily tour starts with a cup, walks through the plantation and visits the mill, and you can sleep in the century-old main house.
Order: Daily coffee tour · A cup of the farm's specialty coffee
💡 Choose a shared or private tour and the guide's language when booking.
A coffee theme park opened in 1995 and run by the National Federation of Coffee Growers, mixing roller coasters with a coffee museum and a sensory room. It began as a proposal at the 1982 national coffee congress for a coffee museum in Quindío.
Order: Sala Sensorial tasting · Coffee at the barista show
💡 Online tickets bought before the day of the visit are 10% cheaper.
A working coffee farm outside Salento whose traditional tour walks you through the plantation, the harvest and the processing of the bean. It ends with coffee made the farm way, in a pot with a cloth filter.
Order: Traditional coffee tour · Chemex or AeroPress in the farm shop
💡 Open daily 9:00 to 17:00; the traditional tour needs no booking. Walk down from town in about an hour or take a Jeep Willys.
A pioneer of Colombian specialty coffee. Founder Luis Fernando Vélez was the first Colombian to compete at the World Barista Championship in 2003, and Amor Perfecto organised the first national coffee championships in 2006.
Order: Micro-lot from Astrid Medina or Diego Campos · Pour-over
💡 This is the roaster's Bogotá location in an industrial park; call ahead before making the trip.
Fewer recent sources for this one: check it's open before you go.
Azahar buys seasonal micro-lots straight from small Colombian farms, paying fixed prices above the market, and roasts them to bring out each producer's coffee. Its Parque 93 café offers table service from early morning.
Order: Seasonal single-origin filter · Espresso
💡 Open daily 7:00 to 20:00; there is also an Azahar at El Dorado airport that never closes.
The Bogotá coffee temple of San Alberto, a Quindío farm brand that calls itself the most awarded coffee in Colombia. Baristas here run guided tastings, including a 'Coffee Baptism' and a slow molecular cupping.
Order: Coffee Baptism tasting · Pour-over of San Alberto coffee
💡 Open daily 9:30 to 19:30; there is also a branch inside the Gold Museum.
A coffee lab in Usaquén built around tasting: visitors can book cupping sessions, coffee-and-pairing experiences, or workshops on extraction, roasting and sensory analysis. Its own roasts come from named regions such as Huila, Caldas and Cauca.
Order: Cupping experience · Single-cup filter
💡 Book a cupping session in advance.
Fewer recent sources for this one: check it's open before you go.
San Alberto's coffee temple in the walled city, on Plaza Santo Domingo. Besides cups to drink, it runs tastings such as a Coffee Baptism paired with honey or rum.
Order: Coffee Baptism with rum pairing · Cold coffee
💡 Open daily 9:00 to 21:00, handy after the evening heat breaks.
Medellín's best-known specialty roaster, buying from partner growers across Colombia with full traceability. The Calle 10B café sits on a tree-lined street in El Poblado and fills with locals and remote workers.
Order: V60 of a seasonal lot · Cold brew
💡 There are also Pergamino counters at José María Córdova airport for a last cup.
A cozy coffee house on Salento's main street serving coffee grown locally by the Jesús Martín family. It also runs farm experiences, from walking the coffee trails and picking cherries to learning how roasting shapes flavour.
Order: Cappuccino · Chocolate cake · Bourbon Rosado beans to take home
💡 Ask in the café about their farm and roasting tours.