La Colmena

by Equipo monKaaba  from monKaaba

La Colmena is a fully traceable blend from monKaaba, an empowerment project led by smallholder producers and based in San Agustin, Huila. The coffee has a medium roast and a balanced flavor profile with notes of nuts, cocoa and pomegranate. We recommend preparing it as an espresso, in a French press, a Moka pot or an automatic filter machine.

Taste notes
Cacao,
Cane sugar &
Apple
Roast profile
Intensity
Variety
Arabica, San Bernardo, Castillo, Gesha, Pink Bourbon, Caturra, Colombia
Process
Washed
Provenance
Huila, Colombia
Weight
Do you want whole beans or ground coffee?
€8.99
€35.96/kg
Includes 7% VAT
excludes Shipping
In stock
Delivery by
Friday, the 24th of January 2025
Get to know the producers
Equipo monKaaba , monKaaba

Although San Agustín is one of the oldest and most valuable coffee growing regions in Colombia, generational smallholder farmers still do not have access to markets that would offer them a sustainable price. monKaaba seeks to change this.

The six smallholder families who founded the project were driven by a shared vision of a different system in which coffee farmers are treated with respect and dignity. Esnaider Ortega Gomez and Didier Ortega run the day-to-day operations of monKaaba. The central hub is a quality assurance laboratory, where any producer can drop by to taste their own coffee and receive immediate feedback on what can be improved. Producers can then decide to join the monKaaba, receive guidance from more experienced producers, and distribute their coffee through the collective.

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Our relationship with monKaaba
€8.54
/kg
The price we pay monKaaba for your coffee
Imported by Semilla Coffee
How the coffee is imported
2024
For how many years we have been working together

About La Colmena

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“La Colmena” is the Spanish term for ‘beehive’. It stands for the idea that the success of the community is based on the efforts of each individual. Didier Ortega writes: “The idea behind La Colmena is to produce a collective field blend of different varieties from the coffee farms of small farmers (Castillo, San Bernardo, Cogollo Rojo, Supremo) or coffees from small farmers who want to establish themselves in the specialty coffee market and can achieve a better price with the joint field blend."

The coffee in this blend was harvested from February to May 2024 and includes contributions from Gloria Ortega, Harold Ortega, Benedicto Fernandez, Alejandro Galindez, Celina Samboni, Orlando Quinayas, Yivier Quinayas, Julian Burbano, Diego Burbano, Maria Ortega, Victor Ortega, Yuri Montanchez, Robert Montanchez, Mauricio Montanchez, Henry Muñoz, Jose Burbano, Marleyi Cordoba, Didier Galindez, Jenaro Burbano, Marleyi Burbano, Damian Bolaños, Angel Ortega, Didier Ortega, Jaime Burbano, Silvio Ordoñez, Esnaider Ortega Gomez, Arley Galindez, Sebastian Hoyos, Armel Burbano.

Our brewing recommendation
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Anabel uses the following recipe to brew with Filter Machine  :

Preparation of 65g La Colmena beans, with a medium-fine grind size and 1 L water.

Results in an smooth cup with a deep sweetness and notes of cacao and apples. Avoid astringency by adjusting the grind size coarser.

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monKaaba Bodega
Huila, Colombia 1730 m a.s.l. Altitude

The Equipo monKaaba operates a small office in San Agustín with a lab for quality assurance. Here, producers from the region can have their coffee roasted for testing and taste it together with monKaaba. This allows monKaaba to offer tips for improving quality and provides producers with the opportunity to market their coffee through monKaaba, helping them achieve higher prices for their coffee.