Origin: San Agustin, Huila, Colombia

Producers: Didier Ortega

Process: Washed

Varieties: Pink Bourbon

Altitude: 1650 - 1900 masl

Importer: Semilla & Monkaaba

Roast: Medium-Light

Notes: Plum, Pink Grapefruit, Floral, Milk Tea

Transparency: We paid Semilla 5.50/lb + shipping and brokerage for a 6 bag lot, their farmgate price was 2,700,000~ colombian pesos ( national average was 1,565,000 at the time) and their FOB price was $4.12/lb.

Didier Ortega

We're so excited to be presenting our pal Didier's coffee to you all. Spending time with Didier in San Agustin was a true highlight of our time in Colombia. Didier is one of the leaders of Monkaaba alongside Esnaider, and an integral part of their opterations.

Speaking as myself here(sonny), I'm still learning spanish, and my ability to actually communicate anything meaningful is super limited, which you can imagine can bring some struggles while visiting Colombia, fortunately we did have the amazing crew at Semilla to translate for us.

Fortunately for me, Didier was also learning english(his english was 100x better then my spanish), but it meant both of us were keen to chat with each other, and try to learn new things not only about each others side of the industry, but a language we both were happy to learn more of.

My first conversation with Didier was while visiting Edil Quinayas' farm(him pictured there with quietly sweater), and it was a fun one. He was very interested and curious about how their coffees were received by our customers, and which ones were peoples favourites. This was not in a superficial businessy way you might expect or be use to seeing here in North America, but in a sincere way, wanting to learn and understand more of a market, which historically has been out of reach for producers like Didier and the folks of Monkaaba.

This conversation, and the others we had showed me his keen interest and desire for the message and worked behind Monkaaba to be shown to the people drinking the coffee, not wanting to be mistaken for another exporter just pushing coffee.

Didier is kind and compassionate, always listening to other producers issues and giving advice where he can, spending more time visiting other farms than he does at his own. 

This passion for his craft and people, his hilarious sense of humour, and joy for life really made me excited to work with Didier and be able to represent his coffee. His coffee truly speaks for itself in quality, with a super laid-back cup popping with florality and soft stone fruits, and a grandma's milk tea mouth feel.

Monkaaba

Working together, Semilla and Monkaaba provide a rare opportunity for most producers. They run a free to use cupping lab in Huila that allows small producers to taste their own coffees and receive feedback from veteran producers on how to improve quality.

This is extremely contrary to how most other buying systems work, and commodity works, where buyers benefit from coffee producers NOT knowing the quality of their coffee, so they can continue offering low prices to producers, and sell for higher profits.

This project is all about empowering and educating producers to reach micro-lot status, and financial stability through coffee production.

Interested in reading more about Monkaaba? Let me guide you to our lovely friends website to read more! - https://www.semilla.ca/projects/1jq18VvLX0WoyK7hvxeeLM