THIS IS TECHNICALLY
MY BROTHER’S FAULT

You already know the short version.
Here’s what didn’t fit on the bag

01 / MARSELLA, RISARALDA

WE GREW UP IN A COFFEE TOWN

and when we say coffee town, we mean coffee town.

coffee paid people’s bills. Coffee decided whether it had been a good year or a bad one.

for the first few years of our lives, we even lived on a coffee farm.

later, our mom opened a coffee buying operation in town.

farmers would empty sacks of coffee into huge piles on the floor.

naturally, we treated them like swimming pools.

coffee wasn’t exotic to us It was literally something we played in

02 / MOM

SHE WAS BUILDING SOMETHING OF HER OWN

she started as a secretary in coffee buying.

then she learned the business, became one of the first women in town buying coffee herself and eventually opened her own operation.

we didn’t think that was unusual.

to us, she was just Mom.

P.S. WE LOVE YOU MOM

03 / THEN TRIED OTHER THINGS

WE DID EVERYTHING EXCEPT COFFEE

my brother moved to Spain.

I went to university, Europe and eventually New York.

he came home and found his way back to coffee.

I kept trying not to.

we even made a little coffee brand once.

people told us it was really good.

WE DID ABSOLUTELY NOTHING USEFUL WITH THAT INFORMATION

04 / NEW YORK

THEN I MOVED FAR ENOUGH AWAY TO MISS IT

leaving changes what you notice.

things that used to feel ordinary start feeling like home.

for me, coffee became one of those things.

and finding coffee in New York that I actually wanted to drink was harder than expected.

too burnt too expensive often both

I complained.

my brother listened.

and eventually he asked the obvious question:

WHY AREN’T WE DOING THIS OURSELVES

annoying!

but fair.

He came back.

I left.

He knows what happens before the bag.

I obsess over everything that happens after it.

HE’S ALL FOCUS I’M ALL IDEAS

Somehow, we kept arriving at the same place from opposite directions.

that became ALTEREGO

THE STORY ONLY MATTERS IF THE COFFEE DOES

we didn’t want Colombia to become just a nice origin story printed on the back of a bag.

so we went back to where it all started.

today, every bean comes from our family’s own farm in Marsella.

ONE FAMILY FARM. GROWN IN MARSELLA. ROASTED AT ORIGIN.

back home, good coffee wasn’t reserved for people who knew the right words.

drink it black. add milk. add sugar. turn it into an espresso martini.

WE CARE THAT THE COFFEE IS GOOD. NOT THAT YOU DRINK IT CORRECTLY.
If you've made it this far,
you should probably taste the coffee.

still his fault

MEET BORN LUCKY →