Devoción founder Steven Sutton and director of education Sebastian Ventura share with Michael Jones why the brand takes its coffee – “the freshest out there” – so seriously and how it delivers convenience, quality, and experience to its fast-growing customer base through the help of trusted partners, such as Rancilio Specialty


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Devoción was launched in 2006 in Steven Sutton's home country, Colombia


he first thing that strikes you when entering one of the light-filled, brick-lined Devoción coffee shops in New York City is that these are destinations for those devoted to coffee. Tere’s plenty of good reasons for that. Whether it’s in one


of Devoción’s cafés in Williamsburg, Brooklyn; Downtown Brooklyn; Flatiron, Manhattan; Dumbo, Brooklyn; or Midtown, Manhattan, the aroma of carefully sourced Colombian coffee as it is poured from beautiful Rancilio Specialty espresso machines – as it is in the Midtown Manhattan location – is positively enchanting. When Devoción founder Steven Sutton launched


the coffee company in 2006, he spotted a gap in the market, feeling he could do things differently in a crowded marketplace. Tat market was in his home country, Colombia. “Te mission was to bring the best possible coffee from Colombia to our clients inside Colombia. At that time, Colombian coffee was not really top-of-mind for specialty coffee – which came more from Central America and Africa. So, I asked myself, ‘Why was this happening?’” At that time, Colombia was in war with


guerrilla groups, which meant that going direct to the farmers to source unique coffees was an extraordinary challenge. “When we started, nobody would do what we wanted to do. Te infrastructure was non-existent for unique third- wave specialty coffee. We didn’t want to copy anybody. We wanted to have our own identity – so we had to do it ourselves,” says Sutton. So, Devoción created the first network of third-


wave specialty coffee purchasing in Colombia. “At that time, it was difficult to buy coffee that way, so nobody was doing it. Tat’s why we were unique.” ▸


Above: Sebastian Ventura, director of education (left) and Steven Sutton, founder of Devoción


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