Professor Peter Klepeis has spent a lot of time drinking coffee and thinking about coffee. This month, he brought some of the fruits of that labor to his sophomore residential seminar, called What’s in Your Cup? The Geography of What We Drink.
The seminar’s 17 students spent the fall 2021 semester analyzing the social and environmental implications of beverages commonly consumed in the United States, including coffee, tea, wine, bottled water, and craft beer and cider. This campus-based coursework was followed by a 10-day trip to Colombia in January.
The Colombia trip focused on coffee, but students learned about many aspects of the country. The trip was co-directed by Universidad de los Andes professor and coffee expert Andrés Guhl. In addition, FoJo Beans’ Dan Joseph accompanied the group. It was an unusual opportunity for a coffee importer and U.S. café owner to learn about the place where the coffee he sells originates. Colgate professors Pilar Mejía-Barrera and Antonio Barrera were also able to join the group for a few days to share their knowledge, assistance, and camaraderie.
Starting in Bogotá, the group explored museums, graffiti, food, and the Paloquemao market; they had a coffee workshop at Varietale (a specialized coffee shop); and they hiked at 12,000 feet through the páramo (a unique high-elevation grassland ecosystem). The group then descended the eastern cordillera and crossed the Magdalena River en route to one of the country’s coffee-growing regions. The students visited the National Coffee Research Center and coffee farms, where they discussed the life of caficultores with the coffee growers themselves.
Participants all agreed that the trip lived up to its goal of connecting coffee consumers with the people and the environment of one of the most important coffee-growing regions in the world.
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