Conscious | Peru & Bolivia

Culainn and Lea are the team behind Conscious. 

They began their work alongside coffee producers in South America in 2021, where they developed an in depth understanding of specialty coffee cultivation, processing and the associated import logistics. Drawing on their professional backgrounds in design, research and international law, they began building partnerships with smallholder coffee producers and community projects in Peru.

Later, Conscious tentatively extended their sourcing prowess into new areas, expanding into Colombian and Bolivian smallholder farms - striving to bring a model with their partnerships, creating a more equal supply chain at farm level. Conscious sources and roasts (as they also roast, don't ya know!) coffees that are vibrant and consistently excellent, while fostering this fairer supply chain at origin. 

As the economic and social landscapes continuously shift around, an adaptive approach is required to best suit the unique circumstances for each region and the partnerships built within.

How We Met Conscious

We were first introduced to Conscious via the Green Coffee Collective, although at that stage, we had only tried a few samples from their offering. We first met Culainn and Lea at Nottingham coffee fest in 2023, where we were exhibiting alongside them. It was a very brief interaction as the event itself was very busy, and nobody had much time spare - but we exchanged a few words briefly and opted for a coffee swap.

At that point, we really quite enjoyed the coffees that we tried, and lined them up immediately for a feature in our Multi-roaster coffee subscription, Just Bru. This led to us chatting much more over instagram, then later over the phone. We found that our values on quality, transparency, traceability and wanting to make the coffee supply chain a better place were wonderfully aligned. 

We were already aware that Conscious offered green coffee from Peru, which we bought from them, in the form of Raul Flores (The very first coffee that we roasted on the Loring S15). After being so impressed with the coffees, we pretty much immediately went back to them to secure some more coffee from Los Rodriguez, a Bolivian coffee producer - who we are actually offering at the moment and you can learn more about here (although it's not exactly the same coffee that I'm referring to in this example). 

Following this, we made the decision at Harmony HQ to make Conscious our mainstay supplier for all needs Peruvian and Bolivian that came our way, and so far, we've been very impressed.

Later in the year (now 2024), I once again reached out to Culainn and Lea ahead of their sourcing trip to Peru and Bolivia to get ahead of the curve and book some of their phenomenal green. We booked our latest Bolivian Pink Honey Java from Los Rodriguez, and our Peruvian El Diamente - more details for which you can find here.

Across Peru, Bolivia and Colombia, Conscious focus on building partnerships with smallholder and family-run coffee producers and community projects. These producers share a commitment to sustainable agricultural practices and exceptional coffee cultivation and processing. Paying financially sustainable prices for their coffee (and being transparent about what they pay) is only part of the story; they consider every producer’s specific needs and strive to create tailored support accordingly.

This includes investing in their production processes, purchasing greater quantities of their coffee year-on-year, maintaining regular visits, and providing educational support so that they can together improve on quality and productivity. Starting at the very beginning of the specialty coffee supply chain and being involved in all stages of the process is integral to the way they work.

As a certified Arabica Q Grader, Culainn applies his expertise in the sensory evaluation of coffee, which is harnessed as a team to select high-quality coffees with distinctive and vibrant flavour profiles and to provide constructive feedback to our producer partners and to share with roasters like me. This approach ensures both excellent coffee quality and transparency from farm to cup.

Working with Culainn and Lea has been a blessing, and we're thrilled to be continuing our purchasing commitments into 2025, looking forward again to 2026. 

In 2024, we purchased 70kg in total (46kg Peru, 24kg Bolivia), and this year, we're thrilled to have increased our purchasing amount to 198kg (138kg Peru, 60kg Bolivia). We're hoping to triple our purchasing commitments with them again next year, as their coffee is among the best that we've found. 

Culainn & Lea's coffees have become a regular staple on our offer list, thanks to their incredibly high quality and extremely reliable consistency.

If you're interested in working with us on a wholesale basis, or to feature some of Conscious' coffees - follow this link and drop us a message!