Coffee has been king in Colombia more than a century. Colombia is the world’s largest producer of “mild” arabica coffee, and, next to Brazil, the second largest producer of all coffee. In 1998 it made $565 million as America’s No. 1 supplier.

Call it codependency. The smiling trademarked face of the fictitious Juan Valdez is an icon of Western culture, better known than the logos for CBS and AT&T. Since 1959 Juan has been sent to persuade us that Colombian is “the world’s richest coffee”. Read more