Why We Chose These Regions
At Artist Secret Garden Coffee Roasters, choosing a coffee begins long before the beans enter the roaster. It begins with a place: its soil and climate, the people who cultivate the coffee, and the flavors that make that origin distinctive.
Our family’s coffee journey started as a creative passion project at the Artist Secret Garden, our Tucson vacation rental. We experimented with beans from regions around the world, sampling them at different roast levels and sharing the results with guests, friends, and family. Over time, three origins stood out: Chiapas, Mexico; Huila, Colombia; and the Uraga area of Ethiopia’s Guji Zone.
Each one offers something special. Just as importantly, each responds differently to heat. We thoughtfully pair every origin with a roast profile designed to bring forward the qualities we most enjoy in the cup. Together, these coffees also form the foundation of our ASG Espresso Blend.
Mexican Chiapas Coffee: Smooth, Rich, and Connected to Tucson
Chiapas holds a special place in our selection. Its coffee offers the smooth, rich character we love, while its Mexican origin feels especially meaningful to us as a Tucson family business.
Southern Arizona is deeply connected to Mexican culture, heritage, food, art, and craftsmanship. Choosing coffee from Chiapas allows us to honor that connection while introducing our customers to beans grown in the high-altitude mountains of southern Mexico.
The region’s volcanic soil, abundant rainfall, and varied mountain microclimates create excellent conditions for cultivating Arabica coffee. The beans we selected are known for balanced chocolate tones, richness, and a smooth finish. Generations of smallholder farmers carefully tend the coffee, then use washed processing and sun-drying methods to prepare it for export.
Why We Offer Chiapas in Three Roast Profiles
We found Chiapas coffee to be exceptionally versatile, which is why we offer it as a medium, dark, and French roast. Each profile reveals a different expression of the same bean, allowing customers to choose their preferred level of intensity without losing the smooth, satisfying character that first drew us to this origin.
Mexican Chiapas—Medium Roast
Smooth, nutty, and incredibly approachable, our Mexican Chiapas Medium Roast highlights rich notes of milk chocolate and toasted pecans. Its creamy body and clean, sweet finish create a consistently flavorful cup, no matter how you choose to brew it.
This is Chiapas at its most balanced: developed enough to bring forward its comforting chocolate-and-nut character while still preserving the bean’s natural sweetness and regional identity. It is an ideal everyday coffee for those who enjoy a smooth, rounded cup without excessive roast intensity.
Mexican Chiapas—Dark Roast
Bold, rich, and deeply satisfying, our Mexican Chiapas Dark Roast develops decadent layers of bittersweet chocolate, walnut, and caramel, followed by a remarkably smooth aftertaste.
This profile is a natural choice for coffee drinkers who want greater depth and intensity without sacrificing smoothness. A French press emphasizes its body and richness, while cold brewing transforms it into a velvety, naturally sweet drink that is especially refreshing on a hot Tucson day.
Mexican Chiapas—French Roast
Deep, intense, and low in acidity, our Mexican Chiapas French Roast is the darkest expression in our collection. It produces a heavy, bold cup defined by rich dark chocolate and subtle smoky undertones.
We highly recommend preparing it in a French press, which retains more of the coffee’s natural oils and allows its deepest flavors and full-bodied texture to come forward. This roast is created for those who want a powerful cup with unmistakable depth.
For us, this coffee represents a partnership between the traditional care of the farmers who grow it and the close attention we give every small batch roasted here in Tucson.
Huila Colombian Coffee: Beautifully Balanced and Familiar
Colombian coffee is a trusted favorite for many coffee drinkers, and it is easy to understand why. Coffee from the Huila region is especially admired for its balance: natural sweetness, mild acidity, and a satisfying medium-to-full body come together in a cup that feels both flavorful and familiar.
Huila lies high in the Andes, where nutrient-rich volcanic soil, steady rainfall, and elevated growing conditions help coffee cherries develop gradually. That slower development contributes to greater depth and complexity. The cherries are harvested by hand, allowing farmers to select the ripest fruit for processing.
Many small farms in the region also grow coffee beneath protective tree canopies. This shaded agroforestry can help shelter Arabica plants from extreme weather, support natural pest control, and contribute to a healthier growing environment.
Our green-coffee trader works with ASPROCESA, a Huila producer association made up of 44 members. In addition to its focus on coffee quality and organic certification, the association supports local education, accessible healthcare, and a better quality of life for its producer-members.
Why We Chose a Medium Roast for Huila
We pair our Huila Colombian beans with a medium roast because it allows their defining quality—balance—to remain at the center of the experience. The roast develops the coffee’s sweetness and body without overwhelming its bright acidity or regional character.
Our Colombian Huila Medium Roast offers the best of both worlds in a single bag. It has a crisp yet creamy mouthfeel, balancing a rich foundation of chocolate and caramel with a bright, fruity citrus finish. Familiar enough to be an inviting everyday coffee yet complex enough to reward closer attention, it demonstrates why Colombian coffee has become a standard choice for so many people.
The brewing method lets you decide which side of the coffee to emphasize. A pour-over brings its fruit and citrus qualities to the foreground, while a French press highlights its chocolate, caramel, and natural sweetness.
Uraga Guji Ethiopian Coffee: Bright, Citrusy, and Complex
For customers who prefer a lighter, livelier cup, we chose coffee from the Uraga area of Ethiopia’s Guji Zone. Grown at approximately 6,500 to 6,640 feet above sea level, this coffee reflects the distinctive character associated with high-altitude Ethiopian Arabica: bright acidity, floral qualities, citrus notes, and layers that can recall exotic spices and tea.
More than 450 small-scale farmers cultivate garden coffee near the Guji-Uraga washing station across roughly 1,253 acres. The area’s rich loamy soil and elevation create ideal growing conditions. Its regional coffee varieties also carry a deep botanical history, cultivated both for resilience and for the floral and citrus characteristics that distinguish the cup.
Ethiopia is widely celebrated as coffee’s birthplace, and its long relationship with the plant gives this origin an added sense of history. The traditional legend of Kaldi—the young goatherd whose energetic goats led to the discovery of coffee berries—continues to symbolize that enduring connection.
Our coffee trader partners with Habtamu Fekadu Aga, a certified-organic and Fair for Life-certified company that reinvests part of its profits into a community development fund.
Why We Light-Roast Our Uraga Guji Coffee
A darker roast could cover the very qualities that make this coffee so distinctive. We therefore use a light roast to protect and reveal its bright citrus flavor, floral aromatics, and delicate complexity.
Bright, floral, and effortlessly elegant, our Ethiopian Uraga Guji Light Roast captures the distinctive character made possible by the region’s remarkable elevation. It has a delicate, tea-like body bursting with crisp lemon and sweet apricot, followed by a fragrant jasmine finish.
This selection is for the curious coffee drinker—someone who wants a cup that feels fresh, expressive, and noticeably different from a traditional medium or dark roast. A morning pour-over is an especially fitting way to experience its clarity, lively fruit notes, and graceful floral finish. It is an invitation to taste more of the bean’s origin and less of the roast itself.
ASG Espresso Blend: Three Origins, One Complete Cup
After selecting these origins individually, we discovered that they could also work beautifully together. Our ASG Espresso Blend combines 100% organic Mexican Chiapas, Huila Colombian, and Uraga Guji Ethiopian coffee beans.
Each origin contributes a different part of the experience:
Mexican Chiapas brings smoothness, richness, dark-chocolate sweetness, and body.
Huila Colombian provides balance, caramel sweetness, gentle fruit, and a creamy structure.
Uraga Guji Ethiopian adds brightness, lively fruit, citrus character, and aromatic complexity.
Crafted for the discerning coffee aficionado, the result is a sophisticated, multilayered profile that balances rich dark-chocolate sweetness with lively fruit notes and a smooth, velvety body. It feels remarkably mellow yet boldly defined at the same time: complex without becoming unruly and full-flavored without allowing any one origin to overwhelm the others.
Although meticulously structured to pull as a stunning espresso or to retain its character through the milk in a cappuccino, the blend is not limited to an espresso machine. Its exceptional balance makes it equally rewarding when prepared by drip, pour-over, or French press.
The blend reflects what we value in coffee: depth without heaviness, brightness without losing balance, and enough complexity to make each sip engaging. It also captures the creative spirit behind ASG Coffee—bringing distinct elements together until they become something harmonious.
Thoughtful Origins, Carefully Roasted in Tucson
We did not choose these coffee regions simply because they are well known. We chose them through experimentation, tasting, and a genuine appreciation for what each bean can become when paired with the right roast.
Chiapas gives us the smooth, rich versatility to create three distinct experiences: a milk-chocolate-and-pecan Medium Roast, a bittersweet-chocolate-and-caramel Dark Roast, and a bold, smoky French Roast—all while honoring Tucson’s close cultural ties to Mexico. Huila provides the balanced, familiar character that makes Colombian coffee a favorite, pairing chocolate and caramel with a bright citrus finish in our Medium Roast. Uraga Guji gives light-roast drinkers an elegant, tea-like cup filled with lemon, apricot, jasmine, and floral complexity. In our ASG Espresso Blend, all three origins come together in one velvety, multilayered expression.
We roast in small batches because freshness and careful attention matter to us. From the farmers who nurture the coffee at origin to Alexis’s close observation of every roast, many hands and many forms of expertise contribute to the final cup.
From our secret garden to your morning ritual, we invite you to explore these thoughtfully chosen coffee regions, discover the roast that speaks to you, and make your day a creative masterpiece.