A Colombian coffee experience for your Medellín offsite or incentive trip

Colombian coffee at your Medellín corporate offsite, without the bus ride

When a US company plans a Medellín corporate offsite or an incentive trip, someone usually asks for “a real Colombian coffee experience.” The first idea is a farm tour, which often takes a full day out of an agenda that has none to spare. The coffee can come to the hotel instead. At Experiencia VINTO we run coffee tastings for companies (in Spanish) and coffee stations in Medellín and five other Colombian cities, and our team works with you in English from the first quote to the baristas behind the bar.

Quick answer: how do you add a coffee experience to a Medellín offsite?

Use three formats that fit inside the agenda. A guided coffee tasting works as a team building activity for groups of up to 20 per session. A specialty coffee station with baristas covers the working sessions and breaks. A coffee cocktail bar, with or without liquor, closes the last dinner. All three run at your hotel or venue. The venue provides space, tables, power and an agreed setup time, and we bring the coffee, equipment, glassware and staff.

Three coffee formats for an offsite or incentive trip

Most groups pick one or two, depending on the agenda and the budget.

A guided coffee tasting as a team activity

A coffee tasting (the coffee trade calls the professional version “cupping”) is a guided session where the group tries several coffees side by side and learns to describe what they taste. Nobody needs to know anything about coffee to join. The instructor explains each step, people compare cups, disagree and ask questions. That back and forth is what turns it into a team activity, and compared with other team building activities in Medellín it has one practical advantage: it happens in the same building as your sessions.

In our sessions the group tastes espresso, americano, Colombian origin coffees from different regions and a commercial coffee as a reference, plus milk drinks and manual brew methods such as V60 or Chemex. José Mejía, our Director of Experiences and co-founder, leads the tastings. He is a barista certified by the SCA and SENA and has more than ten years of experience with Colombian specialty coffee.

A specialty coffee station during working sessions

Your team will drink coffee all day anyway. A station with professional baristas and an espresso machine serves espresso, americano, cappuccino and latte made to order, with iced coffee or cold brew if you want cold drinks too. It runs through the morning and afternoon sessions, and nobody has to leave the building to find a decent cup.

Coffee cocktails at the closing dinner

The last night of an incentive trip usually ends with a dinner. A coffee cocktail bar fits there: drinks made with coffee and spirits, plus versions without alcohol for guests who don’t drink. Our cocktail bar service (in Spanish) covers classics as well, with more than 200 recipes available on request.

What a coffee tasting session looks like, step by step

The order changes with each group, but a session usually goes like this:

1. Setup before the group arrives. We set up the tasting table and the coffee station in the room you choose.
2. Welcome and context. The instructor introduces the coffees: where they come from, how they are grown and how they are processed. Questions are welcome from the first minute.
3. Aroma. The group smells the coffee ground and brewed and starts to put words to it.
4. Espresso and americano. First cups, to notice intensity, flavor and body.
5. Origin coffee against commercial coffee. This is usually where the conversation starts, because people taste the difference right away.
6. Milk drinks and manual methods. The baristas brew live, and the group sees how the same coffee changes with the method.
7. Close. The instructor shares tips for brewing better coffee at home or at the office.

During the session participants describe five things: aroma, flavor, acidity (the bright, fruit-like sensation), body (how heavy the coffee feels) and aftertaste. By the end, “it’s good” has turned into “it has fruity acidity and a light body,” and the group has something to talk about at dinner.

Group sizes and timing

We recommend groups of up to 20 people per tasting session so everyone gets close attention. With a bigger team you have two options:

• Run several sessions back to back, with the group split by table, department or arrival time.
• Keep the coffee station open for everyone and rotate groups of up to 20 through the tasting.

We set the length of each session and the number of drinks with you, based on the agenda. A tasting can be a short icebreaker on arrival day or the main activity of an afternoon.

If you already have dates and a hotel, you can request a proposal for your offsite while you finish planning the agenda.

Sample agenda: where coffee fits in a Medellín offsite

This is a sample for a three-day offsite. Adjust it to your own program.

After the first-day tasting, people have the words to notice when the coffee at the station changes.

What the hotel or venue needs to provide

We bring the coffee station with a dressed table, glassware or premium disposables, the coffee and supplies, the baristas, the tasting instructor and the transport. Before the event, confirm these points with your hotel or venue:

• A quiet room for the tasting, away from strong kitchen or cleaning smells that compete with the coffee.
• Tables and chairs for participants, so everyone has space for their cups.
• Space for the coffee station near the group, so the baristas brew where people can see.
• A power outlet close to the station if the menu includes espresso and milk drinks.
• Access to water. If the room has none nearby, we bring it.
• Setup and teardown times agreed with the venue, plus loading access for the equipment.
• Whether the venue allows an outside bar service with liquor at the closing dinner.
• The guest list and any dietary needs: lactose free, plant milk, less caffeine or no alcohol.

The coffee in the cup

Our house coffee is Amar Café (in Spanish), the family brand of the founders of Experiencia VINTO: specialty coffee from Pitalito, Huila. In Medellín we also work with Mijo Café, a local specialty roaster, when the event calls for a coffee from Antioquia. In a tasting, the group compares these coffees of known origin against a commercial reference.

Planning from abroad

You can organize the whole thing from the US. Quote, planning and coordination happen by email or WhatsApp, in English, and the baristas at the event speak English with your guests. You don’t need anyone on the ground in Medellín, and our guide to planning a corporate event in Colombia covers the rest of the remote planning. Our Medellín coffee station page (in Spanish) lists the neighborhoods and nearby towns we cover.

Prices are in Colombian pesos (COP). Payment and invoicing options are confirmed with the quote.

Real numbers from Experiencia VINTO

From July 27 to 31, 2026, we ran a coffee station in the showroom of Industrias de Moda N&E (case study in Spanish) in Medellín, during the city’s fashion trade-fair season. It ran five consecutive days of ten hours each, with 100 drinks per day: 20 hot, 30 cold and 50 coffee cocktails with liquor, 500 drinks in total. On one of those days we put the beans and the ground coffee on the central table for a short tasting with the client’s guests. For an incentive trip, that means coffee during the day and coffee cocktails when the afternoon slows down.

On June 6, 2025, together with Combarranquilla, we ran a team building activity for the leadership team of the Universidad del Norte in Barranquilla (case study in Spanish). It combined a coffee station (espresso, lattes, americanos, hot chocolate) with an interactive tasting led by José Mejía, using origin coffees with different aroma profiles. Service ran for more than 4 hours, with times and spaces adjusted directly with the client’s HR team.

In Bucaramanga, at a three-day medical congress for Xinetix Pharma (case study in Spanish), we served 100 professionals each day with three origin coffees in rotation, so attendees could compare different cup profiles. The same idea works on a multi-day offsite: change the coffee from one day to the next.

Frequently asked questions about coffee at a Medellín offsite

Does the team speak English?

Yes. The quote, planning and coordination are in English, and the baristas at the event speak English with your guests.

How many people can join a coffee tasting?

We recommend up to 20 people per session. For larger teams we run several sessions back to back, or keep a coffee station open for everyone while groups rotate through the tasting.

Can the tasting happen at our hotel instead of a coffee farm?

Yes. We set it up in a meeting room, a terrace or a private dining room, as long as the space is quiet and has tables, a power outlet nearby and an agreed setup time.

Who leads the tasting?

José Mejía, our Director of Experiences and co-founder, a barista certified by the SCA and SENA. Professional baristas brew the drinks live.

Do you have options for guests who don’t drink alcohol or dairy?

Yes. Coffee cocktails come in versions without liquor, and we bring lactose-free or plant milk and options with less caffeine when you tell us at the quote stage.

Do you work in other cities besides Medellín?

Yes. We work in Bogotá, Medellín, Cartagena, Barranquilla, Cali and Bucaramanga, and we review other cities case by case, depending on availability, budget and logistics.

Request a proposal for your Medellín offsite

To prepare the proposal, send us:

• Dates and the times of each coffee moment
• City and venue (hotel name or type of space)
• Number of guests, and how many will join the tasting
• Type of event: offsite, incentive trip, leadership retreat or client event
• Duration of each service
• Formats you are interested in: guided tasting, coffee station, coffee cocktails or a combination
• Branding needs and dietary restrictions

Get a quote for your Medellín offsite coffee experience