Cauca, Colombia
Where the coffee begins.
The Place
Santander de Quilichao, Cauca
Located in the Cauca department of southwestern Colombia, Santander de Quilichao sits at the northern edge of the biogeographic valley of the Cauca river, where the land rises toward the Andes. The altitude, cloud cover, and volcanic soil create conditions that are ideal for growing coffee with character.
This is not a remote mythologised region presented for marketing purposes. It is a real municipality with real families, real labour, and real relationships built over time. The coffee grown here carries that reality into the cup.
Our coffee comes from our own farms and from partner farmers in the region, grown between 1,700 and 1,900 metres above sea level. At this altitude, cherries ripen slowly - and slow ripening means more sugars, more complexity, and a cleaner cup.
Origin at a glance
- Region
- Cauca, Colombia
- Municipality
- Santander de Quilichao
- Altitude
- 1,700–1,900 masl
- Climate
- Tropical highland
- Main varieties
- Pink Bourbon, Colombia, Castillo
- Harvest season
- May - August
The plants and the people
Coffee farming in Santander de Quilichao is generational work. The families here did not choose coffee as a business opportunity - they inherited it, learned it, and refined it over decades.
Each plant is tended individually. Each cherry is picked by hand when it is ready, not when a machine passes through. That selectivity is part of what makes the coffee different.
From cherry to parchment
After harvest, cherries go through fermentation and drying before they become the green coffee that we roast. This process, done carefully or carelessly, is where the character of the lot is either preserved or lost.
The farms we work with do it carefully. Fermentation is controlled, and drying happens slowly under natural sun heat in artisanal greenhouses. No rushed machines - just time, care, and climate. The result is a coffee that arrives at the roastery already telling a story.
