Origin: La Muralla, San Agustin, Huila

Producer: Esnaider Ortega Gomez & Family

Farm: La Esperanza

Process: Washed

Varieties: Sidra

Elevation: 1750masl

Importer: Semilla & Monkaaba

Roast: Light

Notes: Red Apple, Raspberry Jam, Creamy, Ginger Tea

Farmgate paid to Esnaider & Family via Monkaaba - $4,500,000.00 Colombian Pesos / Carga (125kg parchment coffee)

Semilla’s FOB price : $5.34USD/lb exportable green coffee

our price - $7.50 usd/lb + shipping etc.

We couldn't be more excited to offer this amazing Sidra from the talented Ortega-Gomez family. They've grown coffee in San Agustin for over 50 years, and Esnaider is the founder and leader of Monkaaba, our export partners that we buy the majority of our Colombian coffee through.

Sidra is a highly sought-after variety of coffee, bringing in high-premiums and high cup scores. This cup is sweet and unique, with ripe red apple and raspberry jammyness, a creamy body, and a soft ginger tea vibe.

Esnaider Ortega Gomez & Family. 

Who is Esnaider?

Esnaider is fourth generational, young, a passionate producer, and leader of Monkaaba. We had the privilege to meet and spend time with him and his family during our time in San Agustin. Esnaider took excellent care of us, driving us from farm to farm, making sure we were well fed and full of Guarapo(sugarcane juice).

It's hard to really put into words how inspiring watching Esnaider work is... The passion he has for growing and producing coffee is one thing, but his passion for his work through Monkaaba is truly inspirational. He spends more time in the Monkaaba lab and at other producers farms than he does his own; all with the goal to lift up and educate everyone around him.

From Esnaider directly -

“These last couple of years have seen a very unique change in my life. After producing
coffee with my family for many years, I decided to focus my efforts not only in producing and marketing our coffees but I wanted to go further with a group of friends. My friend Brendan Adams of Semilla coffee gave us the opportunity to be able to learn, work, and grow together in this great dream, looking for a real impact in the coffee supply chain.

It was a big change in my life, with moments of despair and discomfort, because many
times we felt we were trying to make a change in a system where trust had been lost.
This system, in which I have felt for a long time and where I am more than sure now,
where we as small producers have been like instruments for companies — big or small
— where they are only trying to protect their own interests while we’re left to carry a
very high percentage of the risks."

"this game is rigged, man" Bodie Broadus, the wire, season 4, episode 13.

The work Esnaider does through Monkaaba is so important. Battling the oppressive systems that are at play in the coffee industry is no easy task, and you can tell from Esnaider's words the difficulties he has faced in doing so. The System is not designed for producers to succeed, and to push back against that is truly admirable. 

Our trip to Colombia really showed us, as coffee roasters, the importance of playing our part to uplift those producers that are at odds with the industry's status quo. Committing to working with partners such as Monkaaba and Semilla becomes even more important to us when we see the impact that this has on the lives of so many producers. And we couldn't be more honoured to represent their coffee! 

Family & Farm.

Though the coffee is sold under Esnaider's name, he will be the first to tell you that the majority of work is done by his Father Olgar, his siblings, and their long-time field workers (who they work with year over year, and pay well above the regions average). This is common amongst many producing families, though obviously a bit more to the extreme here since Esnaider spends much of his time his work with Monkaaba.

On their farm they grow a variety of coffees including Tabi, Typica, Red & Yellow Caturra, Castillo, and of course Sidra. Esnaider believes it's important to have a wide variety of coffee to have a diverse menu for their international clients. He has plans to add even more variety in the future.

Their beneficio was one of the coolest we saw on our trip to Colombia, with many large shade covered drying beds, old-school oak fermentation tanks, and new equipment for creating their own fertilizer by composting coffee cherry. Their family takes huge pride in what they do, and who they work with; they even have wooden plaques with the names of everyone who has visited their farm (including ours :] ).

If you wish to read more about Semilla, Monkaaba, and the work being done in Colombia, head over to their site! https://www.semilla.ca/projects/1jq18VvLX0WoyK7hvxeeLM

the details:

This coffee is cool, and one of the first I've ever knowing had that's been fermented in oak barrels, which is a traditional method of fermentation that is not commonly used anymore, overtaken by the ease of tiled open faced fermentation tubs.

"Cherries are picked every 21 days when the reach peak ripeness. They are floated and
hand selected to remove all immature cherries, and then are placed on raised beds to
drain the excess water. Around 14 hours later, the coffee is depulped the next morning and dry ferments for an average of 36 hours in oak tanks. It’s rinsed four times and then left to drain in plastic bags for another 10 hours. After that, the coffee is dried for 20 days in shade." 

Thanks if you got all the way down here, I could write a lot more about my time with Esnaider & Semilla in Colombia, but I think we all have our limits of what we can read on a shopify page. happy sippin'.