Four departures stay inside the city and take two or three hours: specialty rooms, tastings at each, and a cupping sheet on two of them. It is the half of coffee a farm cannot teach you, and it costs a morning.
Two or three hours on foot, almost always in Chapinero, moving between specialty roasteries with a tasting at each. No vehicle, no dawn start, no lost day. What you are buying is the second half of coffee — the roast, the brew and the vocabulary for what is in the cup.
Four departures work this way. Three of them walk a short route between three coffee rooms; one stays in La Candelaria with a single roaster. Two hand you a cupping sheet and expect you to fill it in.
Starting at 10:00 and finishing by lunchtime, with the rest of your day intact. On a short trip that is the difference between doing coffee and doing coffee instead of something else.
A flavour wheel, a scoring sheet and someone who does this professionally. It is the one skill from a coffee trip that comes home with you and changes how you buy.
Casa Cafe Cultor, Libertario Coffee Roasters, Cafe 18 Rosales and La Parla are working specialty cafes rather than visitor attractions, and the walk between them crosses Quinta Camacho, a district of English-style houses.
Under a mile, flat, indoors at every stop. The workshops run in all conditions and one simply advises a light jacket, which is Bogota advice in general.
Every stop sells beans by the kilo and will grind to your method. Several travellers go back afterwards for more.
They teach different halves of the same subject, and this is the comparison worth making before you book either.
| Tasting tour | Farm day trip | |
|---|---|---|
| Time | 2 to 3 hours | 8 to 14 hours |
| Price | $49 to $60 | $81 to $221 |
| Starts | 10:00 | 6:30 to 9:00 |
| Where | Chapinero or La Candelaria, on foot | Cundinamarca, by vehicle |
| What you see | Roasteries, brew bars, a cupping table | The plant, the mill, the drying beds |
| What you take away | Vocabulary and a scoring method | An idea of the work behind a bag |
| Food | Coffee, and a savoury bite on one | Lunch on most |
| Best for | A morning, or a specialty drinker | A full free day |
Check availability — Specialty Coffee Workshops in Bogota
If you can, do both across two days for about $145. The farm opens the question and the tasting closes it. The longer comparison is here.
Every tasting tour includes the coffee at each stop and a guide. Two include a cupping sheet and a pen. One adds Colombian chocolate from several regions; one includes a savoury bite; one is a private roastery visit with a coffee specialist alongside the guide.
None includes hotel pickup, and one says so explicitly because the meeting point is easy to find. None includes a meal. Tips are excluded everywhere. One of the four is non-refundable and its card says so — every other departure here refunds in full at 24 hours.
Price band: $49 to $60 per person. Duration: two hours for the shared workshops, three for the private one. Start time: 10:00, and the public specialty workshop runs Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday.
Booking window: these are the easiest things here to book late. No vehicle to fill, no minimum party size, and groups capped at eight or ten. Two or three days is usually enough, though the specialty workshop sells out first because of the cap. What the rooms are like.
Anyone who came to see coffee growing. No tasting tour can show you a plant, a wet mill or a drying bed, because none of those exists in Bogota. If the crop is the point, a farm day trip is the only format that delivers it, and it needs a whole day.
Anyone who cannot manage four to six coffees in two hours, too. The specialty workshop serves caffeinated coffee only, with no decaf alternative. And anyone hoping for a meal — these are tastings, and the only food involved is a savoury bite on one of them.
Everything, including the farm days, is compared on Bogota Coffee Tours, and a coffee tours in Bogota is the easiest thing on it to fit into a busy trip.
Two hours and a quarter through Chapinero with three stops: an introduction and tasting at a roastery, a walk through Quinta Camacho, and Colombian chocolate from several regions to finish. The one departure here whose sale is final.
From $49 per person
A private two hours in La Candelaria with a guide and a coffee specialist at the roaster, and a guided tasting. The only tasting that never leaves the old town, which suits anyone staying there.
From $146 per person
Three Chapinero coffee houses, an hour in each, with a cupping sheet you score yourself and a savoury bite along the way. Private, three hours, and the deepest of the city options on brewing method.
From $60 per person
Three specialty rooms, a tasting at each, Colombia's growing regions explained and cupping practised properly. Two hours on foot, capped at ten, running Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday mornings in English.
From $49 per person
Two hours for the shared workshops and the coffee-and-chocolate walk, three for the private cupping workshop. All of them start at 10:00 and finish before lunch.
Chapinero, on three of the four, between specialty rooms on Calle 70a and around Carrera 5. The fourth stays in La Candelaria with a single roaster.
Four to six cups across two hours, from three different rooms. There is no decaf option on the specialty workshop, so a later slot is worth considering.
No. The guides start with the growing regions rather than the jargon, and travellers who do not normally drink coffee say the history carried them through.
No, on any of them. The meeting points are in safe, easy-to-find parts of the city, and from La Candelaria the Chapinero rooms are a 20 to 25 minute taxi.
The specialty workshop if you want the cupping sheet and the growing regions. The coffee and chocolate walk if someone in your party does not drink coffee. The private workshop if you already brew at home and want a roaster to yourself.