"Welcome to Five Senses Coffee"

Colombia — Monserrate

Consisting of a single paved road, the community of Monserrate straddles a ridge in the picturesque Cordillera Central mountain range in the Southwestern Departamento (state) of Huila. At the top of the road is a large, brick church that houses a shrine to the “Virgen de Monserrate”, a statue of a black Virgin Mary that’s become a regional tourist attraction.

Most residents of Monserrate and surrounding communities are small-scale farmers who grow coffee as a cash crop. Several years ago some of them formed an organisation called “Grupo Associative Productores del Nuevo Milenio”, (Associative group of producers of the New Millennium) or PROAGROMIL, in and effort to sell their coffee at a higher price.

We were introduced to this community and coffee by our good friends at Atlas Coffee in Seattle who have been working very closely with this group since 2005 in conjunction with a USAID — funded Colombian Specialty Coffee Program. The guys at Atlas travel to Monserrate regularly and have assisted the growers in assessing their quality, reviewing their harvesting and processing techniques and offering suggestions on how to position themselves in the specialty coffee market.

The success of this relationship has meant that PROAGROMIL has taken on new members, increased its production and has had the funds to build a cupping laboratory in the centre of town where their own certified Q grader William Quintero manages the quality of coffees coming in during the harvest. All of Monserrate’s coffees are purchased at a premium over the internal price and markets and is all sold under the community’s name.

We have travelled to this small town for the last two harvests, taken part in their cupping competition and spent time getting to know the people who make up this incredibly charming community. We are excited to be a part of this on-going relationship and believe whole heartedly that we can work together to create something that benefits both the farmers and our clients with some phenomenal coffees from Colombia.