About the Coffee Elias and Shady Bayter grew up farming avocados in Colombia before turning their attention to coffee. Today, they run El Vergel alongside their mother Martha Montenegro, and the farm has become known for pushing fermentation techniques further than most producers in the country are willing to go. The Caturra and Colombia varieties in this lot are grown in Colombia's coffee-producing region and processed with a level of technical detail that sets El Vergel apart from more conventional farms. This coffee goes through a multi-stage fermentation process. It starts as a full cherry anaerobic fermentation (meaning the coffee cherries are sealed off from oxygen during fermentation), then gets co-fermented with watermelon and yeast for several days before being fully processed. Anaerobic co-fermentation is still relatively uncommon, and the Bayters have refined it into something repeatable and controlled rather than experimental. Beyond processing, El Vergel puts investment back into the farm through sustainability projects and community initiatives. This particular lot is also a decaf, which adds another layer of complexity to how it's made. The beans go through decaffeination after processing, meaning the fermentation character has to be strong enough to survive that step and still show up clearly in the cup. The fact that it does is a reflection of how deliberately this coffee was built from the start. About Monogram Ben Put, Justin Eyford, and Jeremy Ho started Monogram after working together as baristas in Calgary. They opened their first cafe in the Altadore neighbourhood in 2014, building from a hand-constructed coffee cart. Their backgrounds had nothing to do with coffee before that point: music, health sciences, and development, respectively. What they had in common was an interest in specialty coffee that didn't feel exclusive or intimidating to newcomers. Monogram sources through long-term relationships with specific producers. Ben Put has won the Canadian Barista Championship seven times and placed third at the 2025 World Barista Championship, and that competition-level attention to sourcing and roasting carries into what ends up in the bag. Producers like the Lamastus family at Elida Estate in Panama and Mariana Iturralde at Finca Takesi in Bolivia are ongoing partners, not one-time suppliers. El Vergel fits that same model: a farm Monogram returns to because the quality and the people behind it are consistent.
