Origin: San Agustin, Huila, Colombia

Producer: Various Monkaaba Producers (listed below)

Process: Washed

Varieties: Castillo, Pink Bourbon, Colombia, Papayo, Catimor, Cenicafe 1, Gesha, Caturra

Altitude: 1650-1900masl

Importer: Semilla with Monkaaba

Roast: Medium

Notes: Orange, Red Fruit, Caramel, Milk Chocolate

Transparency: 

• We paid $6.50 USD/lb of green coffee + shipping and storage fees.
• Farmgate price paid to producers was COP$3,300,000~ and national farmgate at the time was averaging around COP$3,000,000.
• FOB price was $5.79/lb.
• Harvested December 2025, shipped February 2026, Launched July 2026.

La Colmena, The Monkaaba Beehive.

Introducing our new seasonal espresso, La Colmena! Translating to "The Beehive", La Colmena is the brainchild of Esnaider Augusto-Ortega & Didier Ortega, the two founders of Monkaaba. A quote from their sister company Semilla - 

"The spirit of the name is derived from the fact that in the beehive, each member works for the greater good of the whole, not simply for themselves. This coffee exemplifies this philosophy as it is centered around coffees grown by the younger members of the group and those making their first attempts to process a coffee for micro-lot sale. This means that each individual lot may not be strong enough to stand on its own, but once grouped together the sum becomes greater than its parts."

As "young" folks in the coffee industry, the story behind La Colmena & Monkaaba really speaks to us. The hard work it takes to break into the specialty market as a smallholder producer cannot be overstated. To risk so much energy, time, and resources for the hope that someone will come along and buy your coffee for an equitable price is not a risk many small producers can afford.

Having a producer-led group like Monkaaba to work alongside greatly mitigates those risks, especially with projects like La Colmena. This is part of why they're such an important partner for us, and we will continue to buy so much coffee from them. We love to see the surge of new producers every year, and as a growing roastery, we hope to continue to support more new coffee growers, while continuing to support producers like Pastor Ordoñez & Orlando Quinayas that we've bought for almost 4 years now, and are part of this blend as well.

The profile for La Colmena is inspired by the love for Leodan's Hilux Espresso, a beautiful single origin coffee roasted intentionally for espresso to highlight its big sweetness. This coffee fits perfectly for the everyday espresso drinker who loves a chocolatey caramely shot, while still having good fruit and gentle acids. Delicious straight up, as an Americano, or paired with milk in a cappuccino.

Brewing Recommendations:

Espresso: 18g-18.5g in / 36g-38g out / 28-32 seconds.

The producers who make up La Colmena are - Nelson Ortega, Lucelly Gomez, William Osorio, Oscar Ivan Hoyos, Pastor Ordoñez, Benedicto Fernandez, Ruben Dario Osorio, Joaquin Ordoñez, Maria Cundar, Mauricio Montanchez, Henry Muñoz, Albeiro Astudillo, Yuliana Ortega, Marleny Galindez, Andres Cordoba, Orlando Quinayas, Ramiro Astudillo, Augusto Ortega, Camilo Samboni, Caronlia Samboni, Jaime Burbano, Sonia Bolaños, Silvio Ordoñez, Mary Luz Ruiz, Juliana Alexandra Jamioy, Uriel Armero, Norberto Tobar, Celso Hoyos, Faustino Ordoñez, Ana Judith Hoyos, Yury Montanchez, Jaime Ortega.

Monkaaba

Working together, Semilla and Monkaaba provide a rare opportunity for most producers. They run a free to use cupping lab in San Agustin, Huila that allows small producers to taste their own coffees and receive feedback from veteran producers on how to improve quality.

This is extremely contrary to how most other buying systems work, and commodity works, where buyers benefit from coffee producers NOT knowing the quality of their coffee, so they can continue offering low prices to producers, and sell for higher profits.

This project is all about empowering and educating producers to reach micro-lot status, and financial stability through coffee production.

Interested in reading more about Monkaaba? Let me guide you to our lovely friends' website to read more! - https://www.semilla.ca/projects/1jq18VvLX0WoyK7hvxeeLM