Most specialty roasters buy green from an importer, who bought it from an exporter, who bought it from a co-op. Every hand takes a margin, and you pay for all of them. We removed those hands a long time ago. The difference shows up in what you pay per pound — not in what we take out of the coffee.
Origin to Roast · Est. 1926
From Port to Cup
Most roasters buy their green coffee from a company like ours. We skipped the middle, so you don't pay for it.
100
Years · four generations
6
Single origins
2pm
Same-day ship cutoff, M–F
0
Middlemen between our warehouse and your bag
The shortest route in coffee
Green coffee normally changes hands three or four times between the farm and the roaster. Every hand adds a margin and takes a little quality with it. We are the middle — importer, warehouse, lab, and roaster in one family, on one property.
A typical specialty roaster's supply chain
Farm
→
Exporter
→
Importer
→
Warehouse
→
Roaster
→
You
Ours
Farm
→
Aldecoa
→
You
Import · exchange-licensed storage · quality lab · decaf plant · roast · pack
Stage 01 · The Farm
Where it starts
Coffee grows best high and slow. Above 1,200 metres the air stays cool, cherries take months to ripen instead of weeks, and slow ripening builds sugar in the seed. Shade does the same work: canopy-grown trees yield less than full sun, but the cup comes out cleaner and sweeter.
Our family has grown coffee in Veracruz since 1938, so we buy like growers, not like traders. We know what a well-run farm looks like because we run them.
Why altitude matters
Cool nights slow cherry maturation, concentrating sucrose and organic acids in the seed. Those compounds become caramel sweetness and bright acidity in the roasted cup. Bean density rises with altitude too — which is why high-grown lots are screened and sold as hard bean.
High altitudeShade grown100% arabicaGrowers since 1938
Photo — coffee trees under shade canopy
Stage 02 · The Harvest
Picked ripe
A coffee tree doesn't ripen all at once. On the lots we buy, pickers walk the same rows repeatedly across a season, taking only the deep-red cherries and leaving the rest to finish. Stripping a whole branch is faster and cheaper — and it sweeps up green fruit, which is the single biggest reason a cup ends up thin and astringent.
3x
Passes through
the same rows in a season
the same rows in a season
Selective pickingPeak ripeness only
Photo — hands holding ripe cherries
Stage 03 · The mill
Processed for the cup
How the fruit comes off the seed shapes flavour as much as where it grew. Washed lots are pulped within hours and fermented just long enough to release the mucilage — that's the bright, clear character in our Colombia and Ethiopia. Natural lots dry inside the whole fruit, which pushes the cup heavier and sweeter.
Either way, drying runs on patios and raised beds until moisture settles in the window below. Too wet and the lot moulds in transit. Too dry and it cups flat and papery.
Target moisture at export
6%8%10%12%14%16%
Accept window: 10–12% · verified by our lab on arrival
The number that matters
Water activity, not just moisture content, is what our lab checks on arrival. It predicts whether a lot stays stable in storage or starts to fade. Most roasters never measure it.
Washed & natural10–12% moistureWater activity tested
Photo — drying patio, beans being raked
Stage 04 · The Lot
Cupped twice by a Q Grader
Parchment is hulled, screened by size and density, and sorted to pull out defects. Only then does a lot get a number.
Every lot is cupped by a licensed Q Grader before we buy, and again when the container lands — same SCA protocol both times: fragrance, flavour, aftertaste, acidity, body, balance, uniformity, clean cup, sweetness. If the delivered coffee doesn't match the pre-shipment sample, it doesn't go into a bag with our name on it.
2x
Every lot cupped
— pre-shipment and
on arrival
— pre-shipment and
on arrival
Licensed Q GraderSCA cupping protocolHPLC analysisTraceable lot no.
Photo — cupping table, spoons and bowls
What our HPLC sees in a green sample
Screen-size distribution — a typical accepted lot
S14S15S16S17S18
Stage 05 · The Voyage
Where most coffee dies
Green coffee is alive, and it is fragile. Weeks crossing the equator, then months in a warehouse before anyone roasts it. Every heat and humidity swing flattens the acidity and dulls the sweetness. By the time a lot reaches a typical roaster, the best of it is already gone.
Our coffee ships in sealed liners inside jute, holding moisture steady across the crossing. It lands at the Port of Houston — a certified coffee exchange port in large part because our own family led the campaign to make it one. In 2003, with Carlos de Aldecoa heading the Greater Houston Coffee Association, Houston won its Coffee "C" designation and went on to become the busiest coffee port on the Gulf.
From the ship, our green goes into the family's exchange-licensed warehouse and silo facility — the only integrated green coffee warehouse and silo operation in Houston. Climate controlled, food grade, inspected annually by the exchange. Then it travels to our roaster, which sits on the same property. Not across town. The same address.
Six origins. One landing.
Twelve months in storage — relative humidity
Gulf-coast air, swinging all year
Our green coffee's climate — flat
2003
Houston certified as a Coffee "C" exchange port
400k+
Sq ft of food-grade warehouse in the family
1
Address for warehouse, silos, lab, and roaster
Stage 06 · The Roast
Small batches, one curve per origin
We roast daily, in small batches, on a vintage drum roaster. Not a nod to tradition on a label — the actual machine, still running.
Every origin gets its own profile: charge temperature, airflow, development time after first crack. A longer, gentler development for Colombia. A tighter finish for Sumatra. A roaster listens as much as watches — first crack, the smell at the drop — and every batch is logged against its curve.
What development time controls
The window between first crack and drop is where Maillard and caramelisation reactions set the balance of sweetness, acidity, and body. Thirty seconds too long and brightness dies; too short and the cup tastes grassy. Profiling per origin is how one machine produces six different coffees instead of one roast wearing six labels.
Profile per originVintage drum roasterRoasted dailyBatch-logged
Photo — roaster drum & cooling tray
One batch, logged — bean temperature & rate of rise
What the drum does — colour through the roast
Green
Yellowing
Cinnamon
City
Full City
Dark
Where our roasts land — Agtron scale
Medium
Colombia · Ethiopia
Mexico · Sumatra Medium-Dark
Costa Rica Dark
Brasil
Colombia · Ethiopia
Mexico · Sumatra Medium-Dark
Costa Rica Dark
Brasil
Lighter ← 70
25 → Darker
Stage 07 · Your Cup
Rested, sealed, shipped
Fresh-roasted coffee is still releasing carbon dioxide. Bag it too soon and the pack swells and the first cups taste sharp. So every batch rests before packing, then goes into a one-way-valve bag that lets CO₂ out and keeps oxygen away.
Every bag carries a lot code tracing to its exact production run and packing date. Order before 2pm Central on a weekday and it ships the same day. From there it's yours — whole bean or ground, any brew method. The last step of our process is the one you make at home.
Rested & degassedOne-way valveTraceable lot codeShips same day
Photo — sealed bag & brewed cup
CO₂ release after roasting — why we rest before packing
Six coffees, measured
Every origin we sell, profiled on the cupping table. Tap one — the shape is the flavour.
Profiles are representative — final shapes come from our lab's cupping data
What we don't send out
Most roasters outsource everything that isn't roasting. Capsules go to a co-packer. Lab work goes to a contract lab. Storage is someone else's warehouse. Every hand-off loses quality and traceability. We kept all of it.
Single serve
Capsules made here
K-Cup compatible pods and Nespresso Original Line capsules run on our own lines — same green, same roast profiles, same lab as the bags. Not a licensing deal with someone else's coffee inside.
Quality
A lab, not a claim
Licensed Q Graders at the cupping table, HPLC and water-activity analysis behind it. Sensory catches what a coffee tastes like. Instrumentation catches what sensory can't.
Storage
Exchange-licensed warehousing
Our green sits in the family's climate-controlled, exchange-licensed facility — inspected annually, food grade, minutes from the roaster instead of a continent away.
Audited, certified, inspected
OK Kosher
Certified by one of the world's most recognised kosher agencies, covering the full production line.
FDA Registered
Registered food facility, subject to FDA inspection and FSMA compliance.
GO TEXAN
Member of the Texas Department of Agriculture's GO TEXAN program. Roasted here, proudly.
The last step is yours
Brew It Right
French Press
Coarse grind, four minutes, then press slowly. The fullest body of the four. Best with Sumatra or Brasil.
Pour-over
Medium-fine grind, 30-second bloom, then three even pours. Clarity first. Made for Ethiopia and Costa Rica.
Moka / espresso
Fine grind, fresh water, off the heat the moment it sputters. Intense and syrupy. Our darker roasts live here.
Cold brew
Coarse grind, cold water, 12 to 24 hours, then filter. Low acid and heavy bodied. Brasil is the one to use.