Chinchón's coffee shop serving coffee from their own family farm in Colombia

Natalia Muñoz grinds and extracts coffee with the espresso

machine

, before drawing milk on it.

The grains that end up turned into a drink have been pampered one by one by her father, Luis Fernando Muñoz, on the other side of the Atlantic, in Santuario.

The journey of more than 8,000 kilometers that separates the Colombian municipality of Chinchón, in Madrid, where the Tomeguín y Colibrí coffee shop is located, ends in a cup, becoming the maximum expression of specialty coffee culture: high quality and maximum traceability .

The entire process – cultivation, roasting and extraction – is in the hands of the third and fourth generations of a family whose coffee tradition dates back to 1936 and which they now spread and enhance in the establishment that has now opened for two years.

“We were tired of not being able to sell at the price we considered fair,” says Manuel González, father-in-law of Luis Fernando Muñoz.

More information

What exactly is specialty coffee?

Tomeguín y Colibrí, a name that nods to the Andean and Cuban culture present in the family, opened during Holy Week 2022, in a town like Chinchón, known for its celebration of the religious holiday.

But far from saying it with sadness, Alejandra Muñoz, 43, remembers it fondly.

“We wanted to get into the hurricane so much that it was great.”

Curiously, the business does not work well only thanks to the weekend visitors who come to the tourist town, but it has made a place for itself as a reference cafeteria for part of the local population and the surrounding area, where there is no concept similar.

“All the people who talk about this place, do so with love,” interrupts a client from Morata de Tajuña who is having breakfast at an adjacent table on a Thursday morning.

“We have been well accepted and we have seen growth.

For us, the important thing is that people feel at home,” says Natalia Muñoz.

The coffee, the toast with avocado and cottage cheese and the blueberry pie.

Three of the cafeteria's star products.

INMA FLORES

The Alto de Plumas farm, an environmental reserve

The establishment represents the last link in a chain that begins at the Alto de Plumas farm, where the coffee beans that are ground in the cafeteria come directly from: 120 hectares of coffee plantations on the slopes “of a beautiful town called Santuario.”

It is explained in detail by Luis Fernando Muñoz, father of Natalia and Alejandra, and the person in charge of managing the plantation at its origin.

He picked up the baton of the work started by his grandfather, who emigrated in the 1920s to Santuario, one of the reference regions for high-quality coffees in the world.

Views of the Alto de Plumas farm, in Santuario, Colombia.

Image provided by Tomeguín and Colibrí.

“The values ​​of the property are incalculable.

We did an ornithological cataloging and photographed 112 different birds, both resident and migratory,” explains Manuel González.

Added to this are “protected, untouched” trees such as oaks, walnuts and cedars and “15 hectares of Alto de Plumas, which is one of the last forested relics of the premontane ecosystem.”

González himself also explains — while showing images saved on his cell phone — he also comments on the existence of bee hives, including meliponas, called the sacred Mayan bee.

“We already know about their ecosystem function because they are natural pollinators and they also pollinate coffee.

It has been proven that the quality of the coffee increases by 30% in this case,” adds Luis Fernando Muñoz.

In total, they have 100 hives.

“There are very few of us left.”

The landscape of the area is made up of slopes, which means that coffee harvesting “has to be done by hand,” describes Natalia Muñoz.

It is a completely artisanal process for which they have to increase the permanent staff of the plantation, made up of 15 people.

Furthermore, one of the changes they have implemented to improve quality in recent years has been the extension of the planting distance to, among other things, “control the height of the tree” or “alternate with other crops,” such as banana or cocoa.

In fact, on the same farm they also produce “fine aroma cocoa,” which they intend to market.

Once harvested, the coffee cherries are carefully selected one by one by hand to be further processed before flying (or sailing) to Spain en route to the roasting plant in Valdemoro, in the Community of Madrid.

The entire process takes approximately three months.

Joaquín Emilio Muñoz, grandfather of Luis Fernando Muñoz and pioneer of the family's coffee business.

In the cafeteria, the family sells three varieties of 100% Arabica coffee.

On the one hand, a “low-caffeine”

Colombia

bourbon pointu (laurine) variety.

“It only has 0.03% caffeine and is an alternative with delicious organoleptic properties,” says Natalia.

Another is a Colombia Castillo variety, grown at 1,800 meters, and “with notes of chocolate and very fruity.”

On the website, the catalog of available options is expanded to more varieties such as pink or yellow

bourbon

, geisha, or a yellow

caturra

aged in a rum barrel.

Expanding coffee culture

“We have done a very great job of evangelization.”

Natalia Muñoz thus refers to the work of disseminating coffee culture that they have carried out since they opened the doors in a place where, before their arrival, only commercial coffee existed.

“They notice the difference in everything, in the flavor, in the preparation... the milk is creamed, at the right temperature... all of this is noticeable in the mouth,” says the person in charge of the establishment, who began working on weekends. and now he is full time.

Part of this didactic work involves recommending to newcomers, for example, that they try the sugar-free drink and, when they do, they realize “that it tastes different, that it is not bitter,” says Alejandra Muñoz.

The walls of the premises are decorated with hints and notes of the local culture of Santuario, in Colombia, and the environmental richness of the Alto de Plumas farm.

INMA FLORES

But the teaching they carry out transcends customer service.

Unlike most specialty coffee shops, where sobriety and neutral tones reign, on the walls of this large establishment there are illustrations about the anatomy of the coffee seed;

its cultivation and processing;

or about the different extraction methods.

They, in addition to the classics such as

espresso

(1.70 euros) or

latte

(2.50 euros), offer an extensive menu with filter coffees—Aeropress, Chemex and V60, each of them at 6 euros—and cold options. like

cold brew

special — which changes and infuses for five days, at a price of 3 euros —, or the coffee lemonade — half

cold brew

, half lemon, and sweetened with panela;

4 euros.

The food menu is also a reflection of care and pampering.

Except for the flaky pastries and waffles — “which are artisanal” — they make everything else themselves, from the bread for the toast, to the cookies and cakes.

Of these, the ones that sell the most are the carrot one and the chocolate one, at 3.50 euros.

For all the proposals they try to “work with local products,” says Natalia Muñoz, who gives as an example the “local” cottage cheese that they use in the best-selling toast, and in which it is combined with tomato and avocado.

“The most beautiful thing is that we want the story to continue.

“That would be ideal.”

Gathered around a table, father, mother, daughters and the husband of one of them, reflect on the continuation of a saga that until now has wanted and known how to collect the family legacy and update it.

Luis Fernando Muñoz has his hopes pinned on his grandchildren.

“The most beautiful thing is that we want the story to continue.

“That would be ideal,” he points out.

Tomeguin and Hummingbird

• Address: Calle de los Huertos, 12. 28370. Chinchón.

  Madrid.

• Hours: closed on Mondays.

  From Tuesday to Friday, from 9:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. and from 4:00 p.m. to 10:00 p.m.

  Saturdays and Sundays, from 9:00 a.m. to 10:00 p.m. 

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