Knowledge centre
Coffee basics, clearly explained
Not a blog and not a stream of advice: the basics of origin, processing, sensory evaluation, buying and brewing. The articles name their source for every technical and historical statement.
Topics
Origin
- The history of coffee in Venezuela Coffee reached the Orinoco in the 1730s, became an export crop in the nineteenth century and saw its production collapse in the twenty-first. Buying Venezuelan coffee today means buying out of an interrupted tradition.
- Venezuela’s coffee growing regions Nine regions, from the Andean slopes to the coastal range. What our portfolio says about them can be counted: every figure here also stands on a product page.
Sensory evaluation and quality
- Acidity, body and finish, explained Three words on every tasting note and rarely explained. They describe different sensations, and they can be judged separately.
- Product segment and individual cup score A segment describes what a green coffee is meant for. A cup score is a measurement of one individual lot. The two are often confused.
Sources
Everything this article states rests on the sources below. Where our own catalogue is the source, it says so, and those figures can be counted on the product pages.
- José Gumilla: El Orinoco ilustrado, y defendido, historia natural, civil y geographica de este gran río, Madrid (1741)
- Fundación Empresas Polar: Diccionario de Historia de Venezuela: entry “Café”, BiblioFEP (2024) bibliofep.fundacionempresaspolar.org
- USDA Foreign Agricultural Service: Coffee Annual: Venezuela, GAIN report, Caracas (2000) apps.fas.usda.gov
- USDA Foreign Agricultural Service: Coffee Annual: Venezuela, GAIN report, Caracas (2015) fas.usda.gov
- International Coffee Organization: World Coffee Statistics Database (2026) ico.org
- LOS ANDES EUROPE GmbH: Own product catalogue, as published on this site; every figure can be counted on the product pages (2026)
- World Coffee Research: Sensory Lexicon, version 2.0, Sensory Analysis Center, Kansas State University (2017) worldcoffeeresearch.org
- Specialty Coffee Association: Coffee Value Assessment: standards 102 to 105, SCA 102 · 103 · 104 · 105 (2026) sca.coffee
- Specialty Coffee Association: Coffee Standards (2026) sca.coffee
- Specialty Coffee Association of America: SCAA Protocols: Cupping Specialty Coffee, revised 16.12.2015, p. 10, copy at coffeecloud.one (2015)
- Darveris Rivas: Cerezómetro: la herramienta que permite mejorar los procesos de cosecha del café, Se Habla Café, 28.05.2020 (2020) sehablacafe.com
- Zerpa, G.; Rivas, D.; Hernández, E.; Zambrano, A.: Calidad fisicoquímica y sensorial de café del estado Mérida, Ciencia e Ingeniería 46 (2), DOI 10.5281/zenodo.15320514 (2025) doi.org
- Kilic, S. et al.: Effect of processing method (natural, washed, honey, fermentation, maceration) on the availability of heavy metals in specialty coffee, PMC10848008 (2024) pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov
- Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations: Arabica coffee manual for Lao PDR, chapter 6, Harvesting and processing (2005) fao.org
- Specialty Coffee Association: CVA Descriptive and Affective Assessments adopted as cupping standards, SCA News (2024) sca.coffee