Grown, not made

Great coffee is grown, not made. We roast it well — but the difference in your cup starts at origin, with the people who grow it.

That's why we source our green beans through Upstream Coffee Imports, an Australian green-coffee importer whose approach centres on sustainability, transparency and meaningful impact at origin. Upstream curates specialty, micro-lot and organic coffees from leading growing regions around the world — and shares our belief that truly great sourcing happens on the ground, not behind a desk.

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Origin countries
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Growing regions
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SCA specialty grade
Direct
Producer partnerships

How Upstream sources

Three simple principles — the reason we trust them with the start of every roast.

  • 01

    Long-term over short-term

    Relationships built over years and many
    harvests — not one-off transactions chasing the cheapest lot.

  • 02

    Transparency over noise

    Real information about who grew your coffee, where it comes from, and how it was produced.

  • 03

    Partnership over transactions

    Regular origin travel, cupping calibration and ongoing dialogue with producers and exporters.

Quality you can measure

Not all specialty is equal. Every coffee is cupped and scored on the SCA 100-point scale — 80+ is the specialty threshold.

  • Foundation

    80–83

    Dependable, everyday specialty — clean, consistent and built for the daily cup.

  • Endeavour

    84–86

    Standout lots with real character — the origins that make you stop and notice.

  • Top Shelf

    86+

    The rare and exceptional — micro-lots and prized varieties, in limited supply.

We choose across all three programs, so there's something for every palate — and every brew method.

Impact at origin

Sourcing that shows up on the ground

Sourcing with impact isn't a slogan. Upstream backs producers directly — from supplying green-grading equipment to farms like Lass Malo in Papua New Guinea, to championing female exporters as a founding principle.

Frequent origin visits, careful cupping and continuous collaboration with producers and exporters mean quality — and fairness — at every stage.

"Truly great sourcing happens on the ground, not behind a desk."

Learn More

The family tree in your cup

From one species, a thousand cups

The coffee you drink belongs to a sprawling family tree — Bourbon, Typica, Geisha, SL28, Catuaí and hundreds more. Each variety carries its own flavour, history and place on the map.

Explore the lineage behind every Cuba St roast with Upstream's Coffee Lineage Guide — a beautiful illustrated map of where your coffee really comes from.

View the lineage guide  →

Where our coffee grows

All great coffee is grown in the same narrow band — the Bean Belt, between the tropics.

Tropic of Cancer Tropic of Capricorn Equator Central & South America Africa Asia-Pacific
North & South America — Colombia, Brazil, Honduras, Mexico, Peru, Nicaragua… Africa — Ethiopia, Rwanda… Asia-Pacific — Papua New Guinea, Timor-Leste, India…

Region list reflects Cuba St's current single-origin range; Upstream sources across 24 origin countries in total.

Sourced responsibly, handled properly

Our green-coffee partner is accredited and actively involved in the specialty community.

  • HACCP

    Food-safety accredited

  • IWCA Australia

    Int'l Women's Coffee Alliance

  • ASCA

    Aust. Specialty Coffee Assoc.

Taste the difference origin makes.

Small-batch, hot-air roasted in Marcoola from beans sourced the right way — one farm, one region, one story in the cup.

Shop Single Origin  →