a coffee farm in Monserrate, Colombia
We recently introduced our latest Select offering: Colombia José Yoja Museo, a washed-process light roast from the region of Monserrate in Colombia that took first place at the 2026 Lo Mejor de Monserrate cupping competition.
There’s a lot we could tell you about this coffee—how it was processed, what we taste in the cup, and how we like to brew it. But those details are only a small part of its story. Behind this coffee are people, relationships, and a connection to Monserrate that, for us, goes back 15 years.
Bird and Bear owner and roaster Dan first visited the community in 2011. Since then, he’s returned again and again, getting to know its producers and bringing coffees from several of its growers back to San Francisco.
Colombia José Yoja Museo is the latest chapter in their story, and an opportunity to share a little more about the people and place behind the coffee in your cup.
Where is Monserrate?
Monserrate is a famous mountainous region in Colombia where small producers grow and process coffee on family farms. The region continuously produces standout coffees with the balance, sweetness, and complexity that first caught Dan’s attention more than a decade ago.
Monserrate is also home to Lo Mejor de Monserrate, a cupping competition that gives individual producers an opportunity to have their coffees evaluated and recognized.
In fact, that competition is part of what first brought Dan to the community.
A Relationship That Started in 2011
Dan and Diego Casso in 2011
Dan first traveled to Monserrate while visiting Colombia in 2011, the same year the country hosted the World Barista Championship in Bogotá.
At the time, he was developing a coffee sourcing program for another roaster. He was looking for something very specific: a community that could produce larger volumes of consistently good coffee, while also allowing him to highlight exceptional, producer-specific lots.
Monserrate offered both.
During the trip, Dan served as a judge for the community’s third annual cupping competition.
“It was a perfect opportunity to taste coffees from a group we could buy larger volumes from, but also find special coffees and work with individual producers.”
That first visit eventually turned into a relationship spanning more than 15 years.
One of the early standouts was from Diego Casso, producer of our recurring Diego y Marta Casso roast, whose coffee won the competition in 2014. Dan remembers Diego and his family as some of the first producers in the community to deliver reliably excellent coffee year after year.
But the evolution Dan witnessed in Monserrate wasn’t limited to what was happening in the cup.
Over the years of returning to the community, Dan watched the producers in Monserrate become more organized and take a greater role in advocating for themselves. What began as a loosely organized group gradually developed into a stronger producer organization, giving growers more agency and creating systems that could better support the community.
Why Monserrate Matters to Us
the town of Monserrate
Monserrate’s history is complicated.
Some members of the community transitioned from growing coca to coffee as they sought more sustainable livelihoods. At the same time, producers were navigating the effects of violence and instability connected to Colombia’s drug trade.
Dan remembers trips when circumstances changed what was possible during his visits. At times, safety concerns meant the group couldn’t travel to individual farms. Instead, producers would come down from the mountains to meet them in a larger town.
For Dan, those experiences changed the way he thought about what it takes for a bag of fresh coffee to reach someone thousands of miles away eventually.
“It’s a really telling experience of how difficult it can be to make great coffee happen and the challenges that people face worldwide.”
It’s easy to talk about coffee in terms of varietals, processing methods, tasting notes, and brewing recipes. All of those things matter. But there’s also a tremendous amount of work, and a lot of people, behind every coffee we roast.
That’s one of the reasons relationships with coffee-growing communities matter so much to us. Over the years, we’ve been fortunate to roast several coffees from the region, including Diego y Marta Casso, Nora Nelly Pillimue, Colombia Monserrate, and now, the Colombia José Yoja Museo.
What does Colombia José Yoja Museo Taste Like?
Roast: Light
Process: Washed
Tasting notes: Milk chocolate + cherry
Texture: Smooth and creamy
Our Colombia José Yoja Museo has a smooth, creamy milk chocolate body with cherry sweetness. This doesn’t mean any flavoring is added or that it's co-fermented with other fruits. These tasting notes are just natural characteristics of this coffee.
When Dan first tasted it, what stood out was its clarity.
“This coffee has such a beautiful, clean, articulate character.”
He describes the coffees from Monserrate as sharing a recognizable foundation while still allowing individual producers and harvests to express themselves differently. José Yoja’s stood out for its complexity while remaining elegant and balanced.
How We Brew It
We’ve been loving José Yoja Museo as a pourover. This method does a beautiful job of highlighting its cherry sweetness, but don’t let that stop you from brewing it however you usually enjoy your coffee.
Dan keeps his brewing routine pretty simple.
His preferred starting point is a 1:15 coffee-to-water ratio. For a pourover, you can scale that ratio to however much coffee you’d like to make. For example, about 20 grams of coffee to 300 grams of water.
As Dan puts it, after plenty of experimenting, “I just like what I like, which is relatively strong coffee.”
Fifteen Years of History in One Cup
coffee drying on a rooftop in Monserrate, Colombia
José Yoja Museo represents one producer and one harvest, but for Bird and Bear, it’s also part of a relationship that started long before we roasted this lot.
Since Dan’s initial visit in 2011, he’s watched producers refine their coffee, seen the community become more organized, tasted competition winners, and has continued to find coffees we want to share with you.
As a small coffee roaster, we want to offer coffees that taste remarkable. But we also want to know where those coffees come from, recognize the people responsible for them, and keep returning to relationships and communities that have become meaningful to us.
We only have a small lot available, so once it’s gone, it’s gone. You can pick up a bag of Colombia José Yoja Museo online or visit us at our Cole Valley garage pop-up in San Francisco.
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