Why we choose to roast coffee

On January 29, 2021 our first state-of-the-art San Franciscan roaster arrived to the Colibri Headquarters in San Antonio, Texas. This roaster is a key component in my mission of sharing, through coffee, what I love most about Colombia, my country of origin. I would have never guessed that a roasting machine would play such a critical role in this mission, so this is the story of why we choose to roast coffee at Colibri Mountain Coffee.

I embarked on a journey to learn about coffee to connect with my origins because I wanted to find good coffee and understand why there was not an evident, direct relationship between coffee growers in Colombia and coffee lovers in the United States. Whatever the answer would be, I had a calling to desperately fill that gap and make a positive economic impact in my country of origin.

I learned that United States imports essentially all its coffee because coffee tress require cool weather but die with frost, so they rarely growth north of the Tropic of Cancer. I also learned that coffee beans are the seeds of a fruit, the coffee cherry, which need to be roasted and turned from green to brown by cooking them with heat to caramelize the natural sugars and develop the flavors that produce the coffee beverage. Thus, roasting is directly related to freshness. Green coffee can remain fresh for over one year and tastes best if it is consumed within three months of roasting. Not surprisingly, the United States has become very good at roasting coffee, and Colombia very good at growing and exporting green coffee. 

We started to roast coffee in our home garage because we wanted to guarantee freshness, and we realized early on that roasting for a dreamer made no economic sense for a roasting company. We sure burned a lot of coffee

After months of research and experimenting, we have learned to control and modulate the flavors of coffee with our roasting techniques to maximize sweetness, minimize bitterness, and brighten your cup with a touch of acidity that keep it from getting boring. Roasting our own coffee selections allows us to establish direct relationships with farmers in Colombia so we can choose our coffee supplies freely. This power to choose allows us to search for sweetness in sustainable farming practices and keeps us motivated to constantly taste new coffees to expand our coffee selections and make a greater impact. The end result is a coffee that tastes good, feels good and does good without the need to add cream, sugar or artificial sweeteners.

Roasting our own coffee selections is the reason why I recommend Colibri Mountain Coffee with confidence when I am asked to recommend a good coffee.