Editorial sacred-geometry illustration for Borderlands, not a photograph of this coffee or its packaging

Editorial illustration · not a coffee photograph

Editorial sacred-geometry artwork for Borderlands; not a documentary photograph

Editorial illustration

🇨🇴Colombia · Nariño

Borderlands

Roasted by Counter Culture CoffeeRoaster's website

TRADITIONAL PROCESS

TagsColombia Nariño Caturra Castillo Colombia variety Washed Light roast Milk Chocolate Almond Arabica Single origin Smallholder associations participating in CRS Borderlands Counter Culture Coffee Independent

🇨🇴ColombiaWashedLight roast

Brand

Counter Culture Coffee

Roaster website

Visit website

Country

🇨🇴Colombia

Region

Nariño

Town

—

Farm / Station

—

Farmer / Producer

Smallholder associations participating in CRS Borderlands

Species

Arabica

Type

Single origin

Grade

Not specified

Variety

Caturra, Castillo, Colombia

Process

Roast

Light

Tasting notes

milk chocolate, almond, nectarine

Fermentation

—

Drying

—

Product page

Roaster's site

Date reviewed

—

Why some details are blank

producer and farmIndividual participating growers and farms are not disclosed for this community lot.
fermentation and drying methodThe exact fermentation protocol and drying method are not published.
gradeA formal green-coffee grade is not published.
altitude mThe page gives a 1,800–2,500 m range, not a single point elevation.
bag size gCoffee List labels the $29 package as 12 oz (about 340 g), while Cherrybook reports 367 g; the official archived page does not display retail weight.
roast dateNo bag-specific roast date was available.

Spotted an error? Report a correction →

The transparency chain

FROM THE BAG
BACK TO THE LAND.

Every link we could verify, traced in one place. Follow the chain as far as it goes — when the industry doesn't disclose a link, we say so instead of guessing.

01
The name on the bag
Borderlands
Named on the bag
02
The brand
Counter Culture Coffee
Documented
03
The roaster
Counter Culture Coffee
Documented
04
The variety
Caturra, Castillo, Colombia
Named on the bag
05
The farm
Not disclosed
Not disclosed
06
The farmer
Smallholder associations participating in CRS Borderlands
Documented
07
The region
Nariño
Documented
08
The country
🇨🇴Colombia
Documented

From the producer

Smallholder associations in Nariño participate in the CRS Borderlands project. CRS provided agronomy and quality-control support, while Counter Culture joined the advisory board and purchased coffee from the new associations.

From the roaster

Counter Culture Coffee highlights this offering as a single-origin selection from Nariño, emphasizing their commitment to sourcing through the Borderlands project.

Why this coffee is noteworthy

A long-running community sourcing project that helped conflict-affected Nariño growers organize and sell directly to quality-focused specialty buyers.

The honest process breakdown

WHAT DID THEY ACTUALLY
DO TO THIS COFFEE?

Reverified the exact release

Confirmed the May–September 2025 harvest, 1,800–2,500 m range, washed process, light roast, and three-variety community composition on the official product page.

Added historical retail evidence

Three independent exact-product catalogs corroborate a $29 retail price; the official $5.60/lb FOB figure remains separately labeled as a green-coffee trade price.

Preserved the identity boundary

Kept the participating associations as the producer context without mislabeling Catholic Relief Services or the project itself as the grower.

Checked sentiment

Coffee List reports zero ratings, coffeeDB is catalog metadata, and Cherrybook explicitly labels its 81 index as an evidence-of-quality score rather than a cup score.

What was added?

Verified historical $29 retail pricing and refreshed exact-release sourcing, provenance, and evidence boundaries.

What wasn't added?

No scalar altitude, individual farm or grower, fermentation protocol, drying method, original tasting score, or numerical public sentiment rating was added.

Why it matters

The profile now separates origin trade pricing from consumer retail pricing and documents the unresolved catalog disagreement over package weight.

What you might taste

Milk chocolate and almond with crisp citrus acidity and a nectarine-like finish.

Sources for these process claims

· https://counterculturecoffee.com/products/borderlands
· https://www.coffeelist.co/b/counter-culture-coffee/borderlands
· https://www.coffeedb.pro/roasters/counter-culture-coffee
· https://cherrybookcoffee.com/coffee/counter-culture-borderlands

Coffee profile

In the database. Not tasted. Not scored.

This coffee is in our database because we can reliably document it — but we haven't tasted and scored it yet, and we never publish a score we haven't earned.

Outside reviews and internet discussion — is kept clearly separate from our own review. When we taste it, our full review appears here.

The internet pulse

What the internet is saying about this coffee

Research complete — no qualifying reviews yet

Our research pipeline scanned public reviews, videos, forums and discussions for this coffee (last pass 2026-10-25) and found no independent review of this exact release that meets our verification standards. When qualifying sources appear, they'll be published here.

What we found

Non-exact, seller, directory, generic-roaster, different-release, duplicate, and older-release sources were excluded. No qualifying independent exact-release review remains.

Until then, meet the people behind it:

Meet the farmer: Smallholder associations participating in CRS Borderlands →

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Suggestions are selected from recently updated, published coffee profiles sharing documented origin, farm, producer, variety, process or tasting notes. This is a bounded discovery sample, not an exhaustive catalog ranking; availability is only a dated source observation.

Same coffee, different roaster?

Other roasters, same producer.

These coffees come from the same producer or farm, offered by other roasters. We never automatically declare two offerings the exact same coffee — a match requires lot, harvest and traceability details. Even a true same-lot pair can taste different: roast approach, freshness, rest and brewing all reshape the cup.

Borderlands MicrolotRELATED

Counter Culture Coffee · Colombia

Same producer — different farm or lot.

Compare the two →

Borderlands

FROM THE BAGBACK TO THE LAND.

WHAT DID THEY ACTUALLYDO TO THIS COFFEE?

In the database. Not tasted. Not scored.

What the internet is saying about this coffee

Try these next →

Other roasters, same producer.

Your coffee interests. Every section.

FROM THE BAG
BACK TO THE LAND.

WHAT DID THEY ACTUALLY
DO TO THIS COFFEE?