Colombia - Luz Helena Salazar

Coffee Alchemy was founded by Hazel de los Reyes, who opened a roastery in Marrickville, Sydney in 2005 after first running a small operation in Dulwich Hill. De los Reyes grew up in the Philippines where her grandmother cultivated Coffea liberica, and she carried that sensory memory into a career that earned her the 2005 Australian Barista Championship and the inaugural 2007 Australian Cup Tasting Championship. The roastery sources directly from producers across origins including Ethiopia, Nicaragua, and Costa Rica, paying above commodity prices and maintaining long term relationships rather than relying on third party certification schemes. Beans are sold weighed to order from glass hoppers rather than prepackaged, and the range spans house blends designed for specific brewing methods alongside single origin lots in washed, natural, and anaerobic processed forms. The brand has since expanded through Gumption by Coffee Alchemy at The Strand Arcade in Sydney and an international outpost in Brooklyn, New York.