LOS CEDROS
Location: Ebejico, Antioquia
Altitude: 1600-2100 meters
Varieties produced at the farm: Pink Bourbon, Castillo, Colombia,
Products: Miraflores, Red Bomb, Yellow Honey, Spring Break.
Leaders: Juan David Builes
Families impacted: 300+
Explore the coffees available at Los Cedros:
Process: Washed.
Blend of small producers from Ebejico.
Notes: Dark Chocolate, Sugar Cane, Nutty.
SCA Points: 82
Process: 120 hours fermentation.
Notes: Cacao nibs with red fruits, blackberry and aromatic.
SCA Points: 85.5
The profile of this coffee is perfect as a entry level for specialty processes.
Process: Honey.
Notes: Honey sweetness, tropical fruits, hints of cherry & caramel.
SCA Points: 85.5
Process: Fermentated and Washed.
Notes: Fruity and floral with notes of watermelon, orange, roses and jasmine.
SCA Points: 87.5
Colombian Specialty Coffee from Ebéjico, Antioquia:
Los Cedros is a specialty coffee project led by Juan David Builes, a young entrepreneur from Ebéjico, Antioquia, who is working to position the region as a recognized origin for high-quality Colombian coffee. The project has two complementary sides: a single estate owned and operated by Juan David, focused on specialty coffee production and controlled processing, and a parchment buying center in the town of Ebéjico, designed to source larger volumes of premium washed coffee from the surrounding area.
In Colombia, most coffee farms are small, family owned operations. Buying centers like Los Cedros play a key role in connecting these producers to the specialty market by centralizing purchasing, ensuring consistent quality standards, and allowing communities to come together to be able to sell their coffees in large quantities to international buyers.
For coffee buyers, Los Cedros offers both traceable specialty lots and access to consistent regional volume. This makes it a valuable sourcing partner for buyers who want the story and quality control of a producer-led project, while also having the capacity to build reliable supply from Ebéjico over time.
Ebejico Specialty Coffee Buying Center in Antioquia
Los Cedros is a project composed of both the Los Cedros buying center as well as their single estate owned and operated by Juan David. While the estate focuses on its own specialty coffee production (Red Bomb, Yellow Honey, Spring Break), the buying center plays a key role in sourcing washed coffees from small producers across Ebejico.
By centralizing purchasing and quality control, the Los Cedros buying center is able to create consistent washed specialty coffee lots while providing local producers with access to better market opportunities and quality-focused feedback.
At Los Cedros buying station, this system goes beyond simple purchasing. Each lot is carefully evaluated upon arrival, creating a structured process that benefits both producers and buyers.
Don Nicolás, who leads the buying station, brings decades of experience in the coffee industry and plays a critical role in maintaining quality standards. He oversees the evaluation of every coffee lot, ensuring consistency and alignment with specialty profiles.
Beyond quality control, this process creates a feedback loop for producers. Farmers receive guidance on harvesting, processing, and drying techniques, allowing them to improve their coffee over time. This leads to better prices for producers and more reliable quality for Los Cedros.
At the same time, Don Nicolás fosters a welcoming and collaborative environment, strengthening long-term relationships with local families and encouraging ongoing improvement across the community.
On Site Q-Grading
Their efforts go even further with an on-site quality program led by their Q-Grader, Octavio, a resource not commonly available at most farms or buying centers. Through in-depth quality evaluations across their own farms, Los Cedros is able to identify issues early, improve consistency, and reduce defects before harvest and processing even begin.
For buyers, this means more reliable quality, greater profile consistency from lot to lot, and fewer surprises upon arrival. This level of control creates stronger traceability and gives roasters more confidence when building long-term purchasing relationships.
The farm is home to a carefully cultivated garden of Pink Bourbon, along with processing facilities specifically designed for coffees such as Red Bomb and Yellow Honey.
Rather than adapting coffee to existing infrastructure, the team first developed and refined their fermentation protocols, then built processing and drying spaces around the specific needs of each coffee profile. This approach allows every stage of production to align with the intended flavor development of the coffee, resulting in greater consistency, clarity, and process control.
The project uses dedicated fermentation systems and individualized drying practices inside covered marquesinas, where each process is managed separately depending on the coffee variety and fermentation style. This level of separation and precision helps protect the integrity of each lot while allowing Los Cedros to produce both clean and highly expressive coffees with reliable quality across harvests.
This is one of the farms we visit during our annual origin trips. If you’re interested in experiencing the farm firsthand and connecting directly with producers at origin, you can learn more about the trip here.
