Good morning and welcome to today’s review of La Colmenita from Monarch, one of Kansas City’s many awesome local coffee shops/roasters. Enjoy!
Purchase this coffee directly for $16/12oz
MONARCH LA COLMENITA
Monarch was opened by Tyler and Jaime Rovenstine in Kansas City, Missouri in 2017. I knew Tyler from his previous affiliation with KC’s excellent Oddly Correct, and Tyler has well over 10 years of experience in the coffee business from barista to entrepreneur. He has Q-grader certification (think of that like the coffee version of a sommelier, but SO much more) and has competed in barista competitions at a high level, too. In the summer of 2017, Monarch opened right across the street from where I volunteer every week, so THAT was nice, although I’m usually in too much of a rush to stop in for coffee! Last week I hopped across the street to pick up a bag of coffee and the first thing that struck me was how colorful the new(er?) bags are. Looking back in my “archive” of Monarch reviews (there are only 2 others), my first bag had no label and it was EARLY in their roasting. The second bag was white with a pink sticker and it matched their mostly black and white aesthetic. The current look is two-tone, featuring bright colors with gold logo and type. My bag featured two tones of pink and I absolutely love the look, especially with the gold. Perfect! Over the last few years, Monarch has expanded to a second location in Kansas City and I’m really pleased to see their growth and success!
This morning’s coffee is La Colmenita, a washed Guatemalan coffee from Huehuetenango. This is a lighty-roasted lot of Caturra and Bourbon varieties grown at Finca La Colmenita by Francisco Cardona Martin. Huehuetenango butts up against Chiapas, Mexico, and La Colmenita sits in slope called Buena Vista at 1850masl. The terrain is steep enough that the roof of the house serves as the drying patio for the farm’s washed coffees! Martin bought this farm in 2002 with the goal of producing top-quality coffees and if his other offerings are like this one, I think he has been successful in that goal.
I’m using my standard pourover method for this coffee, a 1:16 ratio of 22g of coffee to 352g of Third Wave Water in a Trinity Origin dripper with a Kalita 155 filter. My grinder is a Knock Aergrind and I pulse pour my water through a Melodrip to control the agitation of the coffee bed during the pours. This coffee got a 30 second bloom and the brew time was a little over 2.5 minutes (not including the bloom).
I’m going to skip the aroma description… my wife just came into the office and put on some fragrant lotion so my nose is shot now! LOL The joys of office-sharing at home, although, really, it hasn’t been bad at all. Taking a sip, this is a bright, vibrant, fruit-forward Guatemalan coffee. I’d call this a light+ to medium- bodied coffee and there’s a little bit of a cream-like/dairy texture to the cup. I’m getting a lot of citrus notes right up front, but there’s a good amount of complexity for me to suss out further… There’s a lot of sweetness here, associated more with the fruits for me. That being said, there is a light honey-like sugariness to the low end of this coffee. Right up front in the sip I’m getting complex citrus notes and a big flavor of fresh strawberry, which is somewhat surprising from a washed coffee. Naturals are known for commonly having berry notes, but washed coffees, not so much. I know some people can’t tolerate the ferment notes of natural coffees, so this would be a great choice for someone who dislikes naturals but is looking for a berry kick from their cup. This citrus component I keep mentioning is mostly reminding me of orange, and there’s a little lemon-lime, for me, in the second half of the sip, too. As my cup cools and approaches room temperature, the citrus is a little less forward and the strawberry is really dominant, with some apple juice sweetness in the cup, too. The bag mentions cinnamon and I can’t say I’m getting cinnamon, specifically, but there is a hint of warming spices on the finish and in the aftertaste with every sip. As a filter coffee this is a bright, fruit-forward cup that is as jewel-like as the bag it comes in, but it’s still very drinkable and balanced, too. YUM!
But Will it ‘Spro?
Ah, the age old question! This is a light-roasted coffee, so it’s going to make a thoroughly modern shot. I was pulling nice examples with 19.0g in the portafilter, 30g out in 30 seconds. This makes a very bright, very modern coffee that I don’t THINK would pair great with milk, but I could be wrong and I don’t have any dairy around or an espresso machine with steam, so milky drinkers are on their own! LOL This shot has candy-like sweetness and tons of lemon-lime notes (think Sprite or 7-Up) leaning more toward lemon zest/lemon candy. There is a nice body to the cup pulled this way and in the long aftertaste I was getting some creamy, dairy-like sweetness and the strawberry came out here, too.
For the real geeks, I am using a Quick Mill Carola Evo with an aftermarket naked portafilter, IMS precision screen and IMS 16/20 precision basket. Grinder for this coffee, which needed to go really fine (and I didn’t want to mess with my Pharos, which is set for another coffee), was an Orphan Espresso Lido E. I do a WDT stir, groom with an OCD-ripoff, then tamp with a 58.5mm Decent Espresso tamper.
