Maderas is a small coffee shop brewing up special roasts from the mountain ranges of Colombia. 

Sitting right at the corner of College and Ossington, this plant-filled cafe takes its name from the Spanish word for wood — an ode to the farm land its coffee beans are grown on, the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta.

As one of the world's highest ranges along the coast, beans from this Northern Colombian mountain range are coveted for their dynamic flavours and eco-friendly production. 

Owners Mikhala Miller and Jairo Pombo grow their beans on two hectares of Pombo's family farm in The Sierra. 

Their beans are roasted in small batches by an expert in Cartagena, who only roasts 25 to 30 kilos at a time to ensure a consistent quality. 

When we visit, they have two roasts available: the Angel and a slightly more roasted Angry Angel, both named after the 'angel hands' of their coffee pickers on The Sierra. 

If you're interested, Miller or Pombo will be more than happy to give you a coffee education on where their beans come from.

Their store also carries goods like mochila bags and bracelets made by people from the native Wayuu community. 

A regular drip coffee is $3 for a large; a cortado is $3.75. 

A highly-traditional order is the tinto ($1.50), a hot black coffee sweetened with panela, or pressed cane sugar.

Tinto has had an interesting evolution as a small cup of joe for the working class, kind of like the Nescafe of Colombia but using third-rate beans. Obviously the tinto at Maderas uses a much better bean. 

Grab it with some delicious empanadas from Gaucho Pie Co. There's always a selection of at least four types for $3.50, including beef, chicken, and one with pork and pineapple. 

There are also pastelitos ($3.50 each) from Colombus Bakery. These flaky pasries come filled with flavours like guava and cheese. 

One of my favourite parts of the cafe, aside from the awesome coffee, is that it has an entire fridge dedicated to Colombian sodas like Postobon (grape, pineapple, and apple), Bretana club soda and Colombiana kola. 

Don't forget the alfajores. 

Maderas doesn't have WiFi, so it's definitely more of a caffeinate-and-go (or stay for hours and eat Colombian candy) kind of place.