Ben Put, Justin Eyford and Jeremy Ho met as baristas starting out in coffee, coming from music, health sciences and development. They found specialty coffee at the time exclusive and a little elitist, and started Monogram to pursue great coffee and use it to bring people together. The business began with a hand-built coffee cart. Today Monogram sources and roasts its own coffee, serves it in its Calgary cafés and sells it to homes and wholesale partners around the world.

Its coffees come through long-term relationships with producers. Mariana Iturralde leads the team at Finca Takesi in Bolivia, which grows coffee in some of the world’s harshest conditions and which Monogram calls the highest coffee farm on earth. Jamison Savage of Finca Deborah and the Lamastus family of Elida Estate in Panama are at the forefront of processing, and Daterra pairs technology with a commitment to the rainforest. Subscriptions are built as flavour “playlists”, from Chocolatey Comforts and Fruity Classics to Super Funky Adventures and Dreamy Low/No Cafs.

The Monogram team holds ten Canadian Barista Championship titles between them. Co-founder Ben Put won the national title for the seventh time in 2025 and placed third at the 2025 World Barista Championship in Milan, and Director of Coffee Jill Hoff became Canada’s 2026 National Barista Champion in Calgary in June 2026.

Altadore is the neighbourhood café that started it all, open since 2014 and once half its present size, and brews pour-overs from a rotating coffee menu. Britannia is a sunny café next door to Primary Colours, Monogram’s sister restaurant. Fifth Avenue Place serves the downtown business core. In the University District, dry-stacked brick and clean wood frame seats at a roll-up garage door, an airy main room and a “secret” side room.

Coffee on the shelf

Photograph: Monogram Coffee