From source to sip
The story behind your next cup.
In Colombia's far south, where the Andes crowd against the Ecuadorian border, the Nariño department grows some of the highest coffee on earth. The town of Buesaco sits in this thin, bright air, and the cooperative that bears its spirit gives this lot its name.
Nariño anchors the southwestern corner of Colombia, pressed between Ecuador and the Pacific and sitting almost directly on the equator. That position would normally mean punishing heat, but the Andes lift these farms well above 1,900 meters, where warm days give way to cold nights. The slow swing between the two stretches out cherry maturation and lets sugars concentrate in the fruit. The volcanic soil here runs deep with organic material and ash, a foundation that rewards growers who minimize synthetic inputs. You can read more about why elevation matters on our high-altitude coffee page.
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The Coffee Story
The SourceNariño's Equatorial Heights
Nariño anchors the southwestern corner of Colombia, pressed between Ecuador and the Pacific and sitting almost directly on the equator. That position would normally mean punishing heat, but the Andes lift these farms well above 1,900 meters, where warm days give way to cold nights. The slow swing between the two stretches out cherry maturation and lets sugars concentrate in the fruit. The volcanic soil here runs deep with organic material and ash, a foundation that rewards growers who minimize synthetic inputs. You can read more about why elevation matters on our high-altitude coffee page.
This lot is gathered through Alianza Café, a cooperative rooted in the municipality of Buesaco. The group set out to lift the quality of life for Nariño growers and to put Buesaco's coffee on the map, and it has expanded over the years to roughly a thousand member families farming these mountainsides. We selected this organic-certified lot through our partnership with Lohas Beans.
The CraftWashed Clarity, City+ Roast
This coffee is fully washed, the method that defines most of Colombia's celebrated lots. After picking, the producers depulp the cherries and ferment the seeds to break down the remaining fruit mucilage, then rinse it away with clean mountain water before drying. The result is a clean, transparent cup where origin character comes through without the heavier fruit of natural processing. Our guide to natural and washed processing methods walks through how the two diverge.
We roast this lot to City+, a medium level that protects Nariño's nutty sweetness and citrus lift rather than burying it. The aim is balance: enough development to round out the body, restrained enough to keep the brightness intact.
The CupNutty Warmth, Citrus Finish
The cup opens with warm, nutty depth, roasted almond folded into cane sugar sweetness. As it cools, a bright citrus zest cuts through and lifts the whole profile, the kind of acidity that high equatorial altitude tends to produce. The body lands squarely in the medium range, smooth enough to drink black yet structured enough to hold up with a splash of milk.
