BIENVENIDOS / WELCOME
Reforma- Modificación de una cosa con el fin de mejorarla.
Reform- make changes in (something, typically a social, political, or economic institution or practice) in order to improve it.
The Beginning
Reforma Roasters began as a mission long before it became a brand.
In 2017, Angel Medina started roasting coffee in his Portland apartment—
half a pound at a time on a tiny home roaster, all for the purpose of raising money and awareness for DACA recipients.
What began as a small act of solidarity quickly grew into something larger.
Batch by batch, a community formed around the work, and within months
his first café, Kiosko, opened its doors.
Seven months later, Con Leche opened just down the street; a second home for the same values, the same intention, the same heartbeat.
Six months after that, La Perlita opened in Portland’s Pearl District,
turning a humble roasting project into three beloved cafés in under fourteen months.
Each one rooted in culture, community, and the belief that coffee is more than a drink... it’s a story.
Resilience
In the summer of 2019, Angel stepped away from the cafés and the roasting business, somewhat out of exhaustion, but mostly out of curiosity. He wanted to understand coffee at its source, not from behind a counter but from the land itself.
From the hands that tended it. From the people who lived it. He made Mexico City his home base, and from there he traveled by bus into the heart of coffee country; to Chiapas, Veracruz, Oaxaca, Colima, Nayarit, Puebla.
Long rides, small towns, conversations with growers and producers in places where coffee wasn’t a trend, it was a life.
By January 2020, he had begun filming a docuseries about those journeys; capturing the stories, the landscapes, the people behind each harvest.
But on March 13th, production came to an abrupt halt as the COVID-19 pandemic swept across the world. A week later, he returned to Portland, unsure of what came next.
​​Two weeks of stillness passed.
Two weeks of uncertainty. And then... purpose.
From that quiet moment of recalibration, Reforma Roasters was reborn.
A coffee company built from everything he had learned at origin:
the growers, the producers, and most of all; the people who work the land, the people who carry the culture, the people whose stories deserved to be honored in coffee.
The Accolades
In June of 2020, while the world stood still, Medina and his former employee, now co-owner Axel Villa unlocked the doors to La Perlita once more.
The city was quiet, the streets half-empty, but inside that tiny café a pulse returned. Word spread quickly. Within weeks, La Perlita had become a refuge, especially for the BIPOC community, a place where people could breathe, reconnect, and feel seen at a time when so much felt uncertain. The shop was small, but its presence was loud at a time when the city was ready to recognize the importance of diversity.
That same energy pushed the story forward. Later that year, Medina and a new group of partners opened República, a Mexico-forward restaurant that ignited something bigger than any of them expected. The dining room became a stage for memory, culture, and craft. Guests walked in curious and walked out changed.
On day one, it became the best Mexican restaurant in the city. By the end of its inaugural year, it was made official, being named "Restaurant of the Year" by Eater Portland as well as Portland Monthly. Not to be stopped, national recognition followed, first a James Beard Foundation nomination, then a place on Bon Appétit’s list of the “Top 10 Best New Restaurants in America.” Overnight, República became a destination, not just locally, but internationally.
From that momentum, República & Co. took shape. What began as one café and one restaurant grew into a constellation of restaurants, bars, and cafés across the city, each one rooted in story, intention, and the original principles of Reforma Roasters. Every space carried the same through-line: to create with purpose, to honor culture, and to treat food and coffee as vessels for something deeper.
Continuum
In 2023, Angel stepped away once again, this time not out of survival or reinvention, but to build TODOS Media, a platform dedicated to amplifying the voices, stories, and cultures that shaped him. He passed the day-to-day of the restaurants and cafés to the colleagues who had helped build them, trusting the team to carry the work forward while he disappeared behind the camera.
For nearly two years, his world became shooting, producing, editing, pitching, raising funds, and fighting for stories that deserved a wider lens.
TODOS demanded every sacrifice; emotional, physical, creative, financial, and many a day and long conversations about what representation should look like. The work was exhausting, but purposeful. Every series, every frame, every project felt like another way to honor the communities he came from.
Eventually, the time felt right; when the noise quieted and the vision cleared, Angel returned to the thing that began it all. He asked himself a simple question:
How do I bring everything together?
The coffee. The hospitality. The filmmaking.
The storytelling. The lens. The culture.
How do they become one narrative instead of separate chapters?
The Future
The answer was a return to Reforma Roasters; not as a restart,
but as a transformation.
A continuation.
An evolution.
It became a way to blend intention with craft, to let story and flavor speak in the same language.
A way to gather everything learned across kitchens and cafés, across mountains and film sets, across producing regions and community tables, and let it all flow into a single, honest cup.
Now, as he relaunches Reforma in December 2025, it comes back carrying a new perspective but the same heartbeat,
blends of stories that create nostalgia, roasts carrying their own histories, and the belief that coffee can still bridge worlds,
just as it did in the beginning.
Reforma returns, full circle.
Rooted in love.
Driven by purpose.
Free of limitations.
"Con Amor, Y Sin Limites"