Visit the Source: Our Farm, Mill and Roastery

"Visit the source" is a phrase most coffee brands cannot use literally, because the source belongs to someone else. The farm is a supplier, the mill is a service, the roastery is the only part they own.

This is a short description of what our source actually is — three things that are usually three companies, and what it changes that they are one.

The farm

Hacienda Las Mercedes, in Ciudad Bolívar, Antioquia, in the Farallones del Citará, at 5,900 ft (1,800 m). Four generations of the same family.

Everything upstream happens here: planting, the growing year, harvest across six selective hand passes, fermentation, and drying on raised beds that are turned repeatedly through the day. Varietals include Castillo and Caturra, and — on the best plots — Geisha, Java and Wush Wush.

The mill

Hulling removes the dried parchment around the bean and grades the green coffee by size and density, taking defective beans out. It is the least visible step and one of the most consequential: it decides how much of a harvest is actually specialty grade.

Because the milling is ours, lots never enter a shared machine where they could be combined with another farm's coffee. That is the mechanical reason the traceability holds rather than being a claim. More on the step itself in coffee hulling.

The roastery

Roasting happens last, after an order is placed, and the coffee ships within 48 hours, vacuum-sealed the same day.

Each lot gets its own profile: medium for the washed, honey and natural lots, and medium-light for Gold so the floral notes survive the heat. The person setting those profiles watched the harvest and the drying beds, which is a different position from working out a profile from a sack and a spec sheet.

What that means for a bag opened in the US

• No blending step anywhere. There is nothing else in the building to blend with.
• The roast date is recent by construction. Coffee is not roasted into inventory, so it cannot sit.
• The farm gets the feedback. When a lot cups badly, the cause traces to a decision made here on a known day, which is how a harvest improves year over year.

The step-by-step version is in from tree to cup, and the wider case in one farm, six lots, no middlemen.

If you are actually going to Antioquia

Ciudad Bolívar is coffee country rather than tourist country, two to three hours from Medellín. If a trip is on the cards, we have two guides written for visitors from the US: coffee in Medellín for the city, and where to buy Colombian coffee for bringing beans home.

Frequently asked questions

Where exactly is the coffee grown?

Hacienda Las Mercedes, Ciudad Bolívar, Antioquia, Colombia, at 5,900 ft (1,800 m) in the Farallones del Citará.

Do you roast in Colombia or in the US?

In Colombia, on the farm, after the order is placed. The coffee ships within 48 hours, which puts it well inside the window where roasted coffee is at its best.

Does coffee shipped from Colombia arrive stale?

No, if it was roasted to order. Coffee ages from the roast date, not from the distance travelled. A bag roasted the day it ships and delivered within a week or two is often fresher than a domestic bag that spent a month in a warehouse.

Is it all from one farm?

Yes. Every lot comes from Hacienda Las Mercedes. Gold blends three varietals, but all three are grown on the same farm.

The shortest chain there is

Six lots, one hillside, in 8.5 oz (240 g) bags, whole bean or ground for your method. See them in the specialty coffee collection. Shipping is calculated at checkout.