No Store, No Problem – UrbanCup Will Linger On Your Memory

How We Met UrbanCup

We first crossed paths with UrbanCup in one of those Bogotá moments that feel almost accidental, but later you realize they were meant to happen. The invitation appeared quietly on our feed — a workshop blending art therapy and coffee: “A moment to reconnect with yourself, to express freely, and let art do its work between aromas, strokes, and emotions.” Hosted alongside Bogotá Store Café, we arrived expecting a creative escape from the city’s rhythm. We left with the story of a brand that has turned drinking coffee into a meaningful leisure time.

From Huila’s Heart to Bogotá’s Hands

Before we dive on our time at UrbanCup, we’ll tell you how their story begins, long before the brand existed — in Pitalito, Huila, where the Urbano family has been cultivating coffee for over four decades. Huila’s rich volcanic soil and precise altitude make it one of Colombia’s most celebrated coffee regions, and the Urbanos have mastered its rhythm.

Their crops include Gesha, Bourbon Rosado, Castillo, Caturra, y Bourbon Cidra — varieties handled with patient precision through washed, honey, and natural processes. Each process represents a different expression of care. The family’s experience, passed from field to field, is tangible in the product’s aroma: bright, floral, alive.

Maye Urbano brought this heritage to Bogotá with a clear goal — not to turn farming into business, but to turn experience into storytelling. By pairing her family’s knowledge with her creative background, she modernized tradition without diluting its soul. UrbanCup became the bridge between the grower and the dreamer, between Huila’s mountains and Bogotá’s tables.

A Chance Encounter Between Art and Coffee

The Art Therapy Workshop was more than an artsy activity; it was a statement of what the world of coffee can bring to the table, aside from flavor. Participants painted with coffee as their pigment, turning aroma into brushstrokes. Between laughter and the steady drip of a V60, UrbanCup’s founder, Maye Urbano, guided the process.

She spoke about how coffee can be both a daily ritual and a medium of expression. For her, brewing is not just extraction; it’s emotion, memory, and presence. “It’s about slowing down enough to feel,” she told us. That sentiment defines everything UrbanCup does. The brand’s purpose isn’t to impress; it’s to remind people that coffee, like art, connects us to ourselves.

What could have been a marketing event turned into a moment of shared introspection. Every attendee left with a painting, a calm heartbeat, and the faint realization that coffee could be therapy in liquid form.

A Philosophy Grounded in Education and Care

At UrbanCup, coffee education comes from generosity, comes from sharing knowledge and common culture, especially if you’re in Colombia. Their mission is simple: to make specialty coffee understandable, not intimidating. Through workshops, tastings, and one-on-one guidance, they turn complexity into clarity.

You won’t hear intimidating jargon about terroirs or roast curves. Instead, they’ll tell you stories about fermentation times, about why Bourbon Rosado tastes like flowers, or how washed coffees express balance. Their teaching style mirrors their coffee: transparent, approachable, and warm.

Maye’s philosophy is that coffee isn’t luxury; it’s care. Brewing, she says, is a conversation with time, a daily act of patience that helps you return to yourself. It’s why UrbanCup collaborates not just with cafés but with artists, therapists, and designers. They’re creating a new kind of culture: one where coffee educates through emotion.

Partnerships That Blend Craft and Design

One of the best examples of UrbanCup’s collaborative spirit is their ongoing partnership with Bogotá Store Café, the women-run concept shop that merges design and gastronomy. Founded by three sisters — a lawyer, a fashion designer, and an industrial designer — the café became the perfect match for UrbanCup’s aesthetic and philosophy.

Together they created experiences that feel less like service and more like dialogue. The café’s healthy pastries — made from almond, chickpea, and rice flour — pair with UrbanCup’s floral Gesha and caramel-honey Castillo. It’s a combination of science and artistry, precision and feeling.

Beyond that, UrbanCup supplies beans to other concept cafés and creative venues throughout Bogotá, extending their reach without opening a single store. This web of collaborations has turned UrbanCup into a presence rather than a place — a brand that exists through people and partnerships instead of locations.

The Art of Presence

UrbanCup’s absence of a physical café might seem unconventional, but it’s deliberate. Their model thrives on presence without permanence. You won’t find their name plastered across storefronts; you’ll find it in curated cafés, design markets, or within their elegantly assembled anchetas — gift boxes that blend their coffee with small Colombian goods and notes of care.

Even their packaging reflects their essence: neutral tones, fine textures, and minimalist design that feels personal. Each bag looks like something meant to be given, not sold. This aesthetic isn’t accidental; it’s part of a broader statement. UrbanCup is proving that authenticity doesn’t require a street address.

Where other brands invest in spaces, UrbanCup invests in stories. They believe coffee should travel — through homes, conversations, and senses. In a way, they’ve designed the brand to live in memory more than in geography.

Coffee as a Mindful Ritual

To drink UrbanCup coffee is to take part in a ritual that asks for your attention. It’s the pause before the day starts, the slow bloom of the pour-over, the quiet steam that fills a room. Their followers — home brewers, creatives, travelers, and mindful consumers — don’t see coffee as an accessory but as a rhythm.

UrbanCup encourages that rhythm. They treat coffee as meditation: water meets grind, aroma meets air, patience meets result. Each cup becomes a grounding act — one that turns caffeine into clarity.

This is the thread that ties together all their projects, from the Huila farm to the art workshops: coffee as a practice of self-awareness. They’ve turned something as ordinary as brewing into a daily reminder that care — for the bean, for yourself, for others — is always worth the time.

Legacy and Future

UrbanCup’s vision for the future isn’t expansion measured in square meters; it’s depth measured in meaning. Their goal is to keep building bridges between growers, artisans, and coffee drinkers. They want more workshops, more collaborations, more stories told through the language of coffee.

Maye speaks of growth with the same calm confidence she brings to her tastings — gradual, steady, intentional. The plan isn’t to open dozens of locations, but to keep refining what already works: education, community, and trust. UrbanCup’s next phase isn’t about selling more; it’s about reaching better.

This restraint, in an industry often defined by speed, feels revolutionary. It’s the essence of the brand — slow, deliberate, and human.

The Coffee That Stays With You

UrbanCup transforms drinking coffee into an emotional landscape. Every brew carries its story: of family, creativity, and the quiet conviction that good things don’t need to be loud. What could have been just another coffee brand became an experience that lingers.

Whether you have the pleasure and the luck to encounter UrbanCup at a workshop, maybe through a friend’s gift box, maybe in a stranger’s cup that smells faintly of roasted honey and care; their coffee guarantees a nice way to spend your free time and connect with your senses in ways you hadn’t thought of.

In Bogotá’s fast-paced coffee scene, where brands rise and vanish like foam on milk, UrbanCup has built something that endures. Their coffee is artful without being pretentious, emotional without being sentimental, refined without losing warmth.