Shared Source: Colombia Special Feature
Welcome to our next special feature, where we buy direct from a producer and tell their story. This drop we've bought two excellent coffees from Colombia through Shared Source.
"We grew out of the coffee buying department of Small Batch Roasting Co., a small team that became obsessed with seeking to buy coffee independently and sustainably. The motivations are easy to recall: we were fed up with being misled and sometimes outright lied to about how much producers received of what we paid in USD/lb. We hated losing continuity with producers we wanted to buy from and support again. Our dissatisfaction led us to set out independently in 2013 with a Spanish speaker under our wing and plenty of pluck in our boots. It was a pretty simple mission to start with.
Of course, we didn’t start exporting and importing coffee straight away. But we saw problems with pricing and producer vulnerability. We saw how producers were in the dark about buyers’ real needs and chased processing fads; that producers were mostly given poor agronomical and processing advice. We saw the importance of our buying volume to the individuals and groups with whom we wanted to meaningfully partner. We saw that it was possible to farm coffee sustainably, without the status quo liberal chemical application. In short, we saw enough of what happens behind the curtain to realize that we didn’t want to be coffee buying dilettantes, and felt an imperative to undertake coffee buying with an activist mindset.
Next came a fortuitous Seattle friendship and through this a bunch of supportive roaster mates in the Pacific Northwest. Roll on a year or so. Then you came along! The rest is still yet to unfold.
“We”, then, are the coffee buying team of Melbourne-based Small Batch Roasting Co., which was founded in 2009 and remains lovingly attended to by a small team led by Andrew Kelly. Michelle Stoler rounds out our green buying team from Portland, Oregon, where she also manages sales and US operations. On the ground in Nariño, Colombia, Frank Torres facilitates valuable relationships and provides insights and trainings in sustainable coffee production. Additionally, we are logistically supported by many great friends and partners in Huila, Colombia. We exist to share the source."
"We met Jose many years ago through a small group of friends, family and neighbors who formed a small independent association called Los Guácharos (pronounced WATCH-ah-ros) in Bruselas, southern Huila many years ago. Jose originally hails from Nariño, and his family moved to Huila- first to San Agustín, where they worked cutting sugarcane and producing panela, and later to Pitalito as coffee pickers. Jose saved enough to purchase the family farm Finca El Diviso 29 years ago. When he first bought the farm, they only had 1.5 hectares of land, but over the years he purchased neighboring parcels, and the farm now measures 17 hectares, including 1 hectare of natural forest reserve.
As recently as seven or eight years ago, the farm was planted with traditional varieties, and all of the coffee was sold commercially, sometimes even as wet parchment. But along with his sons Adrian, Nestor and Jhonathan, Jose decided to focus on specialty coffee production to escape the volatility of commodity prices and improve their family’s quality of life. These days, 80% of the farm is planted with “exotic” varieties- gesha, sidra, yellow bourbon, bourbon aji and obligón- and the remaining 20% maintains traditional varieties.
The pink bourbon trees at El Diviso come from seeds originally sourced from San Adolfo, where the variety was first discovered. The oldest trees were planted seven years ago, and the newest planting was two years ago- those just entered full production this year. There are about 14,000 pink bourbon trees over 3.2 hectares."
Producer - Jose Uribe Lasso
Origin - Bruselas, Huila, Colombia
Roasted by - Legend Coffee Roasters
Roast Date - 24/08/2026
Variety - Pink Bourbon
Process - Washed, Anaerobic
Flavour notes - Nectarine, Rhubarb, Lemonade
"Ildefonso is the son of a coffee farmer but he did not inherit any farm or land. It took him a while to buy the La Esperanza farm (he bought it from his uncle). The farm is 19 hectares with a mountain/reserve part.
Ildefonso has had a coffee nursery for 5 years in Bruselas. He was encouraged to develop this activity because when he wanted to plant new varieties, it was very difficult for him to find people who were serious about the origin of the seeds and the quality of the work to grow the seedlings. Since the beginning of the nursery, the idea has been to support the members of Los Guacharos, since it is with them that this dynamic of new varieties began. They are sold seedlings. Other producers or companies can be sold seedlings or seeds.
The farm is a hill that starts at 1700 m and ends at 2100 m above sea level. Only 5 hectares of the 19 are cultivated with coffee. The rest is montana and reserva, it has never been touched. The bourbon aji are planted at 2100m."
Producer - Ildefonso Cordoba
Origin - Vereda el Pencil, Huila, Colombia
Roasted by - Legend Coffee Roasters
Roast Date - 24/08/2026
Variety - Bourbon Aji
Process - Washed
Flavour notes - Pink lady apple, Nougat
Brew Guidelines
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Espresso - 9 bar Brew ratio - 1:2.3 (dry coffee : espresso liquid) Temp - 94 Deg C Time - 25-30 seconds. *Adjust grind size to achieve the desired time
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Espresso - 6 bar Brew ratio - 1:2.7 (dry coffee : espresso liquid) Temp - 94 Deg C Time - 25-30 seconds. *Adjust grind size to achieve the desired time
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Pourover Temp - off the boil Ratio - 1:16 (dry coffee:water) Bloom - 30 seconds Flow rate - fast *Adjust grind size to achieve desired flow rate |
Aeropress Temp - off the boil Ratio - 1:16 (dry coffee : water) Bloom - 30 seconds Brew time - 90 seconds (including bloom) Press consistently over 15-20 seconds. |
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Stove top Ratio - 1 - 8.5 (dry coffee : water) |
