Day 19: Ibaque, Colombia.

Regular followers of Team Beck are likely aware that I am a non-coffee drinker. I have never liked the smell, texture or taste of it. No coffee ice cream for me. No espresso-laced desserts for me. On some level, this is good and bad for Marc. He gets almost a full 2nd dessert I may only want a spoonful of, but as the baker of the house, he tends not to experiment with coffee in desserts as much as he would probably like because of my dislike of coffee.

So why are we in the ‘Coffee Triangle’, you may ask? It’s Operation Cincuenta and since it’s all about Marc, we go for coffee given his love of artisanal coffee. I promised Marc that when we got here that I would participate in any and all coffee tastings scheduled. I couldn’t promise loving coffee when all was said and done, but I was going to give my best. 

But first we had our private cooking lesson with the head chef of the hacienda - Ruben. We met him and went to the market with Guillermo, our guide, and Giovanni, our driver. We picked up some veg, meat and other goodies. Along the way (with Guillermo doing an ABSOLUTELY FANTASTIC job of translating), Marc and I asked Ruben about weightlifting plus we talked about specific seafood and veg that we have in the Pacific Northwest. 

The questions about lifting came from the fact that Ruben is built like a tank and has arms that could probably break people like they’re a twig. Not sure if Guillermo has ever translated on these topics, but we all seemed to have fun talking about lifting weights, burpees, and other crazy workouts plus sharing videos and pics. We found out later that the boys in the kitchen were impressed with Marc’s shoulders (well, duh - those swimmer shoulders are pretty dreamy) and my front squat PR video.

Ruben walked us through how to make empanadas with cheese only and with beef and

cheese. Plus we learned how to make carimañolas, chuletas and a combo dessert that is best described as chocolate, coffee, dulce de leche and Oreo cookies.  Guillermo stayed on to translate and we all had lots of laughs in addition to learning how to make some tasty food (and have bad carbs for days). And yes, the food was really tasty if I may say so myself.

As Marc mentioned in yesterday’s blog entry, some candle torch blew up towards the end of the meal and almost hit me. Today, Ruben was attempting to showcase the texture of the dulce de leche mixture and as he squeezed the bag, it went flying towards me which also required some agility and dexterity to avoid it all from landing on me. Never a dull moment. As we were finishing up the meat course, we figured that since the dessert would benefit from a ‘set’ period to firm up that we should do the coffee tasting now and have dessert later. Off we went!

Given my dislike for coffee, I decided to treat this activity almost like an academic exercise. Going back to the book reco we made earlier in the week, the way coffee moves from plant to bean to cup is somewhat similar to wine. I kept the bulk of my questions focused from that angle and actually learned a great deal more than I was expecting on this topic. Guillermo also informed us we were going to have a test, which I thought put me at a disadvantage since I don’t like coffee but his reasoning was my wine knowledge would help counter Marc’s taste buds. Hmmmm.

We tasted at an old estate that is owned by the family of César Gaviria, who was President of Colombia when they killed Pablo Escobar. It was very traditional and we learned a bit about how those homes were laid out in the 19th and early 20th centuries. Marc and I also learned how houses with red indicated a liberal political belief from the family in those times. Blue meant conservative beliefs. 

Guillermo explained to Marc and I about the process from seedlings to harvest to being sold to a coffee producer. Coffee here is harvested 2x/year. We learned how it takes 2.5 years from when the seeds are first planted in a nursery to the 1st harvest of the coffee fruit. The peak of a coffee fruit tree is the 3rd harvest and they are pruned in a major way after the 5th harvest cycle. As with wine, the branches are pruned in a less aggressive way throughout each harvest to ensure the best fruit gets the right nutrients.

During the tasting, we first reviewed flavor profiles and aromas, and Marc and I had part 1 of our test. We were given individual water glasses with salt, sour, sweet and bitter and had to guess which one was which. Tie. Then we had part 2. Again, we tied each other using a set of aromas developed by Jean Lenoir. Then we tasted 2 coffees - one was beyond horrible. Guillermo said it was ‘aggressive’ in the favor. I used the word ‘obnoxious’. Then we had a 2nd coffee where it still wasn’t great but I’d call that one ‘aggressive’ instead! Anyway, the test ended in a tie between us.

We came back, packed and had the tasting menu offered by the hacienda. Trout is the local fish in Armenia and I had it for dinner the night before. Tonight they had a ‘trout ceviche’ on the menu. It was really good, and even better, Marc finished all of his! I don’t think Marc has collectively consumed (willingly) as much seafood in his life as he has on this trip. I consider this a victory. Unfortunately I am still not a convert to drinking coffee but I really enjoyed learning about how it was made. We also had a surprise frog visitor during our meal.

We knew we were going to have an absurd amount of dessert between the 2 of us because

of the tasting menu and the 4 desserts we had from the cooking class. Marc and I met a nice family from Brooklyn a couple of nights earlier and in that party were 2 parents and 2 “kids” in their mid-20s. We knew they likely had the metabolisms to take on our “donation”. The dessert with the tasting menu was too “coffee oriented” for me. That said, the tasting menu dessert had a liquid nitrogen component and any leftovers were thrown into the pool, which generated a very cool visual. The dessert we made was great and when the crew from Brooklyn tasted it, they concurred. Score. It must have been the Oreos. 

Marc and I are off to the Amazon tomorrow morning. Internet, if they have it where we are staying, will likely be limited. So if you don’t hear from us for a few days, let’s hope it is because of no WiFi and not because the jungle animals came after us. We hope to be back online on Sunday afternoon. Thanks for tuning in!

More pics HERE.