Carmen Estate Natural Espresso

About the Coffee

Carmen Estate is one of Panama's most recognized coffee farms, long associated with the Franceschi family before passing to Jean Paul Langenstein. JP is both a producer and a roaster, and has been involved with Best of Panama, which gives him a clear view of what separates good coffee from great. Since taking over the farm, he's maintained the standards set by the previous owners while continuing to push quality forward. The farm sits at high elevation in Panama's mountains, where cool temperatures and shade from old-growth forest slow the growing cycle and build complexity in the beans.

This coffee is a natural-processed Caturra, meaning the coffee cherries are dried whole on raised beds rather than having the fruit removed before drying. Leaving the fruit on slows moisture loss and lets sugars from the skin and pulp absorb into the bean over time. Raised beds improve airflow around the cherries, which leads to a more even, controlled dry. The result is a coffee with more body and sweetness than you'd typically get from a washed process.

Caturra is a compact, single-gene mutation of Bourbon that's been grown across Latin America for decades. It tends to produce clean, well-defined flavour, and at Carmen's elevation with natural processing, it takes on a noticeably richer, fruit-forward character. JP's hands-on involvement at both the farm and in roasting means the coffee is managed with a consistent eye toward quality all the way through.

About Monogram

Ben Put, Justin Eyford, and Jeremy Ho started Monogram in Calgary after meeting as baristas early in their careers. They opened their first location in the Altadore neighbourhood in 2014, starting from a hand-built coffee cart. The three came from different backgrounds, music, health sciences, and development, but shared a frustration with how exclusionary specialty coffee culture had become. They wanted to build something more open and less intimidating.

Ben Put has won the Canadian Barista Championship seven times and placed third at the 2025 World Barista Championship. That competitive background shapes how Monogram approaches sourcing and roasting. They work with producers directly over long periods, including farms like Finca Deborah and Elida Estate in Panama, both of which are known for pushing processing techniques forward. Their relationship with Carmen Estate fits that same pattern: finding producers who are serious about quality and sticking with them.