Devoción, a New York City-based Colombian coffee brand, has been serving the country’s freshest coffee from origin to cup in as few as 10 days. With an industry norm processing time from origin to cup of anywhere from six to twelve months, Devoción takes a new approach to coffee, much like a farm-to-table chef approaches food and ingredients.
Instead of having every single origin coffee on its coffee shop menus, the brand focuses on a smaller menu that features only what’s in season. Steven Sutton, Colombian-born founder of Devoción Coffee, provides a glimpse inside the 10-day journey from coffee origin in Colombia to cup in NYC.
The 10-day journey from bean to cup
“Coffee, being the seed of a cherry, is surprisingly little understood despite being one of the most common drinks on earth,” says Sutton. “Before we ever get what’s known as a green coffee bean (the bean we roast, grind, and brew), coffee goes through a complex process that includes harvesting, drying, a resting period inside the dried cherry or parchment, and dry milling. Only after all this can we finally roast and brew. Yet, the only part of the story we’re usually told about “freshness” involves just the last two steps: roasting and brewing.”
“Over the past decades, the harvesting, drying, and dry milling stages have evolved tremendously. Processing quality has improved year after year. However, there’s one small yet enormous detail that most have overlooked: what happens after dry milling, once the coffee is ready to leave its origin and before it’s roasted?” says Sutton.
This is where Devoción sets itself apart by taking a bold step and doing something remarkable in the industry. By protecting the integrity of the green bean before roasting, Devoción ensures every single component that contributes to a great cup of coffee remains intact by sting, ensuring that every single component contributing to an extraordinary cup of coffee remains intact by going from origin to cup in as fast as 10 days (whereas the industry average is over 180 days). “By controlling the entire process, we can ensure quality and consistency in every key step that goes into an amazing cup of coffee,” he shares.
Step-by-Step: Devoción’s 10-Day journey
- Day 1-2: The parchment and/or dried cherry is dry-milled at our facility in Bogotá, Colombia.
- Day 3: The coffee is bagged, tagged, and prepared for export, with full traceability.
- Day 4: FedEx picks up the shipment at our dry mill in Bogotá.
- Days 5–7: The coffee goes through international shipping, customs clearance in the U.S., and transportation to the Brooklyn roasting facility.
- Days 8–10: The coffee arrives, enters our roasting schedule, and is ready to be roasted, ground, and brewed, reaching your cup while still at peak freshness.
Defying industry norms
“Coffee roasters have traditionally tried to keep every type of coffee origin in their portfolio at all times,” says Sutton. “They have relied on coffee exporters around the world and on ocean freight logistics to bring in their coffees from each harvest. To their benefit, coffee, when properly stored, does not spoil.”
“As a result, it has never been uncommon for roasters to store beans for years without posing any health risks to consumers, allowing them to always offer a wide range of coffee-growing origins to their clients. Because all coffee roasters do this, consumers have very few ways to tell the difference between freshly sourced coffee and beans that have been sitting for months in storage before roasting,” he shares.
Devoción, on the other hand, takes a different approach by only purchasing, transporting, and roasting coffees from regions that are currently in harvest. “We want to transport our clients to the origin through our coffees, and let them taste the coffee just as we have tasted it from the farmer’s hands,” says Sutton. This is what makes Devoción stand out for quality, taste, and innovation in the space.
