“We are not afraid of Starbucks, what might happen is that Colombians will drink more coffee”. The arrival of Starbucks to the land of Juan Valdez.

In June 16 2014 Starbucks opened its first store in Bogotá, Colombia. This paper analyzes how the Colombian identity as a nation of coffee shaped the reaction by the major Colombian newspaper before and after the arrival of Starbucks. In order to frame my research I relied on secondary sources to understand the history of the Colombian coffee culture and the three main areas that contributed to shape Colombia’s identity as a coffee nation: (1) a small scale production from which thousands of families depended, (2) an avid global market for coffee and (3) the successful establishment of FNC in 1927 which confronted the 1980’s coffee crisis by changing its strategy as a raw coffee producer into a consumer oriented brand as a measure after the 1989 coffee crisis. On the other hand, the relation between coffee and identity in Bogotá. Its major urban center, revolves around notions of semi-public spaces usually dominated by man. With this framework in mind I analyzed my primary sources on Eltiempo.com during 2014 by looking at the anticipation to the arrival of Starbucks and to what happened during the arrival and after it. I focused on two aspects (1) how the Starbucks arrival contrasts with the acquisition of OMA, by a Costa Rican investment fund, which raised no comments and (2) the strategy that Starbucks adopted in order to enter the Colombian market by focusing on a discourse of respect and help to the Colombian growers. I argue that particular historical responses were important in shaping the Identity of Colombia as a nation of coffee producers but that this has not been translated into the realm of consumption, in spite of the recent efforts by the FNC, thus on the consumption side the arrival of Starbucks will increase consumption and perhaps foster a consumer oriented culture of coffee.