Salento Coffee is a Colombian specialty coffee that was born with the intention of denoting a coffee of height while at the same time representing with affection and respect, the work towards our national beverage. The product is the result of the best selection of coffee of Salento origin (Quindío) located at 1920 meters above sea level, belonging to the Castillo variety. In our Colombian Coffee products we have two options for each palate to enjoy and choose the best option according to their tastes.
Café Salento, a family business.
In more than 300 years of history of coffee in Colombia, we have not had a time with so many varieties and options to choose the best cup possible. These have been years full of constant learning, work and passion to be the country with the best mild coffee in the world. And one of the companies that contributes a grain of sand to make this possible is the one where Café Salento and Café Tulio & María were born.
Ambrosia emerged as a family business more than ten years ago, with the objective of producing, roasting and commercializing coffee of regional origin. At that time, when there were not so many coffee brands, they were pioneers and discovered all the impulse that they could give to the development of the area. Ivan, one of its spokespersons recalls that the person that works on its packaging initially designed for only three brands and now manages more than 200. With all this information, there is no doubt: they are an enterprising family.
Ideas with potential
According to the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor (GEM) in its most recent report, Colombia stands out in the fourth position in the rate of early stage entrepreneurial activity (TEA). According to the global report, among the thirty-five world economies that responded to the survey of adult population in both 2019 and 2020, twenty-one of the countries experienced a drop in this indicator. However, the remaining fourteen showed a significant increase, including Colombia, which climbed two places from sixth to fourth.
The TEA measures entrepreneurial activity by the percentage of individuals between the ages of 18 and 64 who identify themselves as nascent entrepreneurs or new entrepreneurs with less than forty-two months of operation, paying salaries or any other type of remuneration to employees and/or owners.
The impact of entrepreneurship and innovation on business is advancing so rapidly and has such a vast scope that it is difficult to understand how to act to achieve the results that a country like Colombia seeks on this front. International evidence confirms that the highest levels of development correspond to countries that also show high levels of innovative entrepreneurship in their economies. What is less clear is how nations that are still far from that state can reach it. The problem is complex, as entrepreneurship and innovation actually take place at three levels: the macro level of the country and the environment, the intermediate level of companies and the basic level of individuals. Innovative entrepreneurship is an attitude in individuals, a culture and a capacity in companies and a characteristic of the competitive environment in countries.
These three levels have to work at the same time, as each of them feeds on the others. To achieve a more entrepreneurial society, it is necessary to activate the potential of individuals, companies and the macro context.
In honor of grandparents
"We started when everything was very virgin, so we had the opportunity to first reach chain stores and now we have a more extensive tour" says Ivan when we talk on the phone. They started with Café Tulio & María, a name in honor of their paternal grandparents. The coffee came from coffee trees in a family farm located in Risaralda. Then came Café Salento, with the intention of generating a high altitude coffee brand that they did not know would have such an impact on the market.
Ambrosía S.A.S. was born due to the concern of the variability of coffee prices for the producer and farmer. In this way, they sought to unite the best commercial efforts to begin the sale of roasted coffee under their own brand and thus change the traditional structure at a national level that consisted of providing an input by selling coffee in parchment to large roasters.
The Colombian coffee that they offer in their brands is natural and roasted in an artisanal manner, cooled by air, without the absolute incorporation of any coloring or sweetening additive. This process is constantly supervised, since it is the most important step in order to encapsulate within the bean all its aromas and to obtain a cup with soft, chocolate, caramel and citric notes.
Tulio & María is a castle variety coffee with sweeter notes. It is considered a coffee for restaurants and gourmet places, especially for the young public that wants a good coffee. The name, as previously mentioned, was in honor of his grandparents, working peasants who "assumed the responsibility of forming a large family, with all the challenges and situations that they had to face due to the political violence in the country's countryside in the 1940s".
Tulio & Maria has three different versions and each one of them has a variety of presentations so that everyone can drink a traditional coffee with all the flavor of the Andean area. On the other hand, Café Salento is a brand that comes with the purpose of expressing a high altitude coffee. Also of the castle variety, this product has chocolate and citric notes. It is a fresher and more striking coffee. Through it they wanted to represent with affection and respect the work of so many farmers towards the national beverage. This, like the first, also has different versions and presentations.
The three presentations of Café Salento are premium, high roasting and special editions. The Premium is obtained from the selection of the best beans, the most homogeneous and even in order to give a regular roasting and thus conserve the notes typical of that production. Normally the roasting is medium-high for a better expression in fragrance, aroma and cup. The presentation of high roasting is elaborated to create a variable of premium Salento coffee generating a product with bitter flavor notes. To achieve this objective a series of blends of the same coffee in different roasts are made to generate the desired taste. Finally, Special Editions have different presentations according to the season. Each coffee is elaborated with unique and special characteristics resulting in original flavors and different notes when tasted.
At this moment they do not have their own farm. They work with an average of seven coffee growers with small farms of no more than three hectares. They are the ones who provide the coffee beans to this company, which is in charge of bringing coffee from the Coffee Cultural Landscape to the tables of Colombians and foreigners alike. It is companies like this one that do everything possible to bring to the table of Colombians a good quality product at an affordable price for all.
Coffee, one of the most popular products on the planet, is obtained from the seeds of a bush known as the coffee tree. The seeds of these trees are roasted and ground to become powder, a product that is used in different methods and from which the best mild coffee in the world is obtained. Although it has existed for a long time, little by little Colombians have changed the way they drink it. For this reason, at present, there are so many options to choose from. People between 25 and 30 years of age allow themselves to taste coffee of excellent quality to continue sharing with the world this passion that accompanies all Colombians.
In Café Salento and Tulio & Maria are committed to offering a coffee of excellent quality. They have been working for years with coffee growers and learning so that their product comes from the best hands. They know that, in order to offer a quality bean, a stable climate is necessary, where humidity and warmth predominate; and they know about the main characteristic that should be felt in a good coffee: the aroma.
Within the coffee flavors we have: sweet, fruity, acid, pronounced, coffee flavor and high. In the case of the body of the beverage, he refers to the flavors and their persistence in the mouth and throat. Iván assures that the products of his company have an excellent flavor and are apt for all Colombians and foreigners to feel part of the Coffee Cultural Landscape.
