San Vicente Espresso

About the Coffee

OCCICAFE is a cooperative of smallholder producers based in La Plata, Huila, Colombia. Their farms sit between 1,500 and 1,950 meters above sea level in the hills outside La Plata, where steady growing conditions support consistent, clean coffees. Since 2015, the cooperative has focused on raising quality across its membership, and in recent years partnered with Cofinet, a Colombian exporter known for working closely with producers to improve picking and processing standards.

The coffee is fully washed, meaning the fruit is removed from the cherry before the beans are dried, which tends to produce a cleaner, more straightforward cup. The varieties are Caturra and Castillo, two common Colombian cultivars that together deliver good yields and reliable quality at altitude. The partnership with Cofinet has helped standardize post-harvest handling across producers, so what comes out of the cooperative is more consistent than what individual farms working alone might achieve.

Each producer contributes their own lot to a shared effort, with Cofinet helping coordinate processing so the quality holds from farm to export. It is the kind of arrangement where the cooperative benefits from outside technical input without losing the producer relationships at its core.

About Monogram

Ben Put, Justin Eyford, and Jeremy Ho started Monogram after meeting as baristas, all three coming from different backgrounds: music, health sciences, and development. What they had in common was an interest in specialty coffee and a frustration with how exclusive the scene felt at the time. They opened their first cafe in Calgary's Altadore neighbourhood in 2014, starting small and building from there.

On the competition side, the Monogram team has won 10 Canadian Barista Championship titles, with Ben Put placing third at the 2025 World Barista Championship. That competitive focus carries into how they source: long-term relationships with specific producers, including farms like Finca Takesi in Bolivia and Elida Estate in Panama, where they work closely with the people growing the coffee rather than buying off the spot market.