Boyacá

Boyacá, in the Eastern range of the Andes in central Colombia, has grown coffee for well over two centuries. It is a department of small, shade-grown farms: almost all its coffee grows under shade, and most growers have plots of less than a hectare. Its coffee grows at about 1,100–2,000 metres, on both sides of the range, and is picked mainly from September to December.

The short version

• Honeyed and balanced, with a panela-sweet aroma and medium citric acidity.
• About 1,100–2,000 m.
• 94% under shade.
• Main harvest September–December, mitaca March–May.
• Coffee recorded since 1787.

What does Boyacá coffee taste like?

The FNC’s official regional profile describes a panela-sweet aroma (panela is unrefined cane sugar), sweet, fruity flavours, medium, citric acidity and a medium-high, creamy body. The FNC’s coffee atlas, written with the national research centre Cenicafé, says the notes vary by subregion but calls it, overall, a coffee of great balance, with honeyed flavours, a velvety feel and great complexity. Boyacá has no denomination of origin of its own.

Where and how high is it grown?

Boyacá’s land runs from lowlands in the west, over the high plateau, to the foothills of the eastern plains, and up to 5,380 metres at Ritacuba Blanco. Its coffee sits much lower: the atlas places the coffee zone at 1,100 to 2,000 metres, with an average temperature of 19.3 °C. Coffee grows in 37 of its 123 municipalities, on the western slope (the Magdalena basin) and the eastern slope (the Orinoco basin), in five subregions:

Subregion	Share of coffee area	Includes
Ricaurte	35.4%	Moniquirá, Togüí, Santana, Chitaraque
Lengupá	31.1%	Miraflores, Zetaquira, San Eduardo, Páez
West	23.2%	Muzo, Pauna, Otanche, Coper
Valle de Tenza	7.7%	Garagoa, Guateque, Macanal, Santa María
La Libertad	2.6%	Labranzagrande, Pajarito, Paya, Pisba

Source: Atlas Cafetero de Colombia (FNC and Cenicafé), figures to 30 September 2017.

94.1% of the coffee grows under shade or partial shade; La Libertad has the most in full sun, at 14.7%. 65.4% of the area was planted with rust-resistant varieties bred by Cenicafé.

When is it harvested?

The atlas gives a main harvest from September to December, with 70% of the crop, and a mitaca from March to May, with 30%. The first-half harvest is strongest in the municipalities of the west of the department.

Who grows Boyacá’s coffee?

Small farmers. The atlas counted 10,503 coffee families on 12,009 farms in 2017; 65.4% of growers had plots of less than a hectare, 34.1% had 1–5 hectares and only 0.5% more than 5. 32% of these small growers were women. Boyacá has more than 30 associations, with about 3,000 growers.

Figure	Value	Source
Area, 2024	11,073 ha	FNC coffee information system, via Agronegocios
Area, 2017	10,714 ha	Atlas Cafetero de Colombia
Families, 2017	10,503	Atlas Cafetero de Colombia

How long has Boyacá grown coffee?

Since at least 1787, when the Spanish government recognised coffee plantations at Muzo, in Boyacá, and Girón, in Santander, the atlas says. Coffee was then grown on large haciendas and sold to Venezuela via the middle Magdalena. By the 1932 coffee census, 1,333 farms were registered, and in 1927, when the FNC was founded, Boyacá sent five delegates to the national coffee congress.

Boyacá and other Colombian origins

• Coffee in Colombia: the whole country, its harvests and its figures.
• Santander: its neighbour to the north, also shade-grown.
• Cundinamarca: its neighbour to the south-west.