Colombia Mesa de Los Santos – a surprisingly bold, organic, Fair Trade, carbon negative coffee.

Thanks again to the folks at Tiny Footprint Coffee for sending us this Colombian coffee. Thanks!

Last time we tasted their Nicaraguan Dark Roast. This coffee, and roast, is very different, but no less impressive.

Before we get to the coffee itself, let me repeat some of what I wrote about Tiny Footprint Coffee in our last review.

First off, all their coffees are certified Fair-Trade, organic and 100% shade-grown.

In addition, their coffees are carbon negative. For every pound of coffee grown, processed and roasted, it takes 4 lbs of carbon. That’s the carbon footprint, for any coffee.

But for each pound of coffee they sell, Tiny Footprint Coffee plants 54 lbs worth of carbon-absorbing trees.

In other words, when you buy their coffees, the final outcome is carbon-negative.

And that’s a good thing.

Now let’s check out the coffee itself.

As always, we ground the coffee beans fresh from the bag, made the coffee black, and let it sit and cool for a little while.

This is certainly a surprising coffee, but in a good way.

Because it is light-to-medium roasted, we were expecting something quite subtle, with a broad range of flavors, but at the same time somewhat smooth and light.

Well, that’s not what we found. This Colombia Mesa de Los Santos is actually quite bold and rich, with a fair bit of acidity.

For us, we felt that immediate infusion of acidity or bitterness filling our mouths. The bitterness certainly isn’t sharp, as you might find with some dark-roasted coffees. But it is decidedly there. No mistake about that.

There is a sweetness there too. Maybe a touch of dark chocolate or cocoa, with a little acid fruitiness. A touch of berries perhaps.

There is another taste there in the background, which we first wrote down as “forest floor”. Well, I’m not sure that “forest floor” is included in the lexicon of coffee tasting. It doesn’t even sound like a positive attribute. So perhaps what we were tasting could better be described as a nut flavor.

This soft nut flavor does a great job of balancing the acidity and fruit in this coffee, resulting in a taste that is full and harmonious.

I would certainly drink this again, and am delighted to have found a light-to-medium roast Colombian coffee with such a bold and unexpected taste profile.

You can learn more about Colombia Mesa de Los Santos at Tiny Footprint Coffee.

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About the author: Nick Usborne, aka Coffee Detective, is a writer and long-time coffee enthusiast. Read more…