Chocolate and Coffee Factory in Mijas — Two Crafts Under One Roof

Cacao and coffee are siblings. They grow in the same tropical belt, often on neighbouring farms, at similar altitudes. They're both fermented after harvest, dried in the sun, and transformed by roasting. And in both cases, the difference between ordinary and extraordinary comes down to sourcing, freshness, and care.

At Mayan Monkey in Mijas Pueblo, we work with both — and you can see it all happen under one roof.

Two Bean-to-Product Journeys in One Factory

Walk into our factory and you'll see cacao being tempered into chocolate on one side and green coffee beans being roasted on the other. It's not a museum or a showroom — it's a working production space where we make everything we sell, every day.

The Chocolate Side

We use organic, ethically-sourced cacao to produce everything from bonbons and bars to drinking chocolate. Our workshops let you get hands-on with the entire process — tempering, moulding, filling, decorating. In the Masterclass, you even roast raw cacao beans yourself and grind them into hot chocolate the way the ancient Maya did.

The cacao we use has real depth: fruity, earthy, complex. Because we work with high-quality couverture chocolate — not compound — every bar and bonbon has a snap, a shine, and a flavour that you simply can't get from mass-produced chocolate.

The Coffee Side

We roast speciality-grade coffee on a Typhoon fluid bed roaster — a machine that uses a column of hot air instead of a heated drum. The result is an exceptionally clean, bright cup that lets you taste the origin rather than the roast. We import single-origin green beans scored 80+ on the SCA scale, and roast in small batches to develop each coffee's unique character.

The roaster sits on the factory floor, visible to everyone. When a batch is roasting, the aroma fills the entire building — and it mixes with the smell of warm chocolate in a way that's genuinely intoxicating.

Why They Belong Together

Chocolate and coffee aren't just similar crops — they share actual flavour chemistry. Both develop their complex flavours through the Maillard reaction during roasting (explore the full journey in our guide to how chocolate is made), the same process that gives bread its crust and steak its sear. Both contain hundreds of volatile aromatic compounds. And when you taste them side by side, you start to notice the overlap: nutty, fruity, caramel, floral, earthy notes that appear in both.

This isn't a coincidence. It's terroir, processing, and roasting — the same three variables that determine quality in both products. Understanding one helps you appreciate the other.

That's why they live together in our factory. Not as a gimmick, but because the craft behind both is fundamentally the same: source the best raw material, process it with care, and serve it fresh.

A Day at the Factory

Here's what a typical visit looks like:

• Arrive and explore: See the roaster, the tempering station, the moulding area. Ask questions — we love talking about what we do.
• Make chocolate: Choose a workshop — from a quick 35-minute bonbon session (from €19.95) to a 2-hour premium Masterclass with wine pairing (from €135). Kids aged 3+ can join most workshops.
• Drink great coffee: While the chocolate sets, sit down with a cup of something freshly roasted. Or grab an espresso while your kids finish decorating their bars.
• Take it home: Buy bags of roasted coffee, boxes of handmade chocolate, or both. Everything is made here — nothing is brought in from elsewhere.

For Families

This is one of those rare places where everyone in the family gets something out of it. The kids are completely absorbed in making their own chocolate bars and bonbons. Meanwhile, you get to drink properly good coffee and watch a real production process. Nobody is bored, nobody is dragging their feet, and everyone leaves with something they made or chose themselves.

It's also a genuine learning experience. Children see where chocolate comes from — not from a shop, but from a bean that grows on a tree in the tropics. They roast it, grind it, shape it. And parents discover that speciality coffee and artisan chocolate have more in common than they ever imagined.

For Foodies and Coffee Lovers

If you're the kind of person who reads the tasting notes on a coffee bag or asks where the cacao in your chocolate comes from — this place was made for you. We're happy to geek out about roast profiles, bean origins, processing methods, and flavour development. The Typhoon roaster is a conversation starter on its own.

Find Us

We're at Plaza Virgen de la Peña 15, Mijas Pueblo — a short drive up from the coast. The village itself is worth the visit: whitewashed streets, mountain views, and a pace that feels nothing like the beach resorts below. Open daily 10:30am – 6:00pm (until 9pm in summer).

Two crafts, one factory, zero compromise. Come and taste the difference that freshness and quality make.