Colombia — Los Magníficos Monkaaba Sidra Field Blend (Washed)

Tastes Like — 🍈 Lychee • ⭐ Star Fruit • 🍇 Sweet Green Grapes • 🍬 Candy

DETAILS

• Producers: Orlando Quinayas, Diana Quinayas, Jose Omar Muñoz, Rovira Salamanca & Stiven Hoyos — Monkaaba Group

• Region: San Agustín, Huila, Colombia

• Varietal: Sidra

• Process: Washed (varying protocols per producer)

• Altitude: 1,600–1,989 MASL

• Roast: Filter

• Size: 250g

INTRO

A Sidra blend from five Monkaaba producers in San Agustín — bright, candy-like, and deeply aromatic, sourced through Swerl's partners at Semilla. A lot designed with purpose: to ensure that small-scale producers with exceptional quality but insufficient volume can still access the specialty market and earn the prices they deserve. In the cup: lychee, star fruit, sweet green grapes, and a candy-like sweetness that runs from first sip to last.

THE PRODUCER

Los Magníficos is a Semilla and Monkaaba initiative built around a simple and important truth: in a massive producing region like Huila, the economics of small lots work against the producers who make them. When a smallholder cultivates a tiny plot and delivers a small amount of exceptional coffee, the logistics of managing, cupping, and selling that individual lot are often too costly or time-consuming to justify for most buyers. The result is a holding pattern — quality goes unrecognised, and producers are unable to access the higher prices their work deserves.

Los Magníficos exists to break that cycle. By cupping and selecting individual lots at the Monkaaba bodega, then blending the finest small separations from multiple producers into a single cohesive lot, Semilla creates both an economic pathway and a community — giving smallholders access to dialogue, learning, and international markets that would otherwise be closed to them. Five producers contribute to this Sidra lot: Orlando Quinayas, Diana Quinayas, Jose Omar Muñoz, Rovira Salamanca, and Stiven Hoyos — each farming plots across 1,600–1,989 MASL in San Agustín, with processing varying between producers before each delivers their parchment to the Monkaaba bodega for analysis and selection.

Sidra is a variety grown primarily in Huila and Ecuador, genetically identified as Ethiopian Landrace. Celebrated for its vivid aromatic complexity, bright fruit-forward acidity, and the candy-like botanical character it delivers at altitude, it thrives across the diverse growing conditions represented by these five producers — and the resulting blend is a compelling demonstration of what the variety is capable of in the right hands.

THE PROCESS

Processing varies between the five contributing producers, with each applying their own washed protocol before delivering parchment to the Monkaaba bodega:

🍒 Hand-picking — Sidra cherries selectively harvested at peak ripeness by each producer 🔧 Depulping — Outer skin removed before fermentation 🧪 Washed fermentation — Beans fermented according to each producer's individual protocol 💧 Washing — Thoroughly washed after fermentation to remove all residue ☀️ Drying — Dried to optimal moisture content before delivery to the bodega 🔍 Bodega selection — Parchment coffee from each producer tasted, analysed, and selected by the Semilla and Monkaaba team before blending into the final lot

The cupping and selection process at the Monkaaba bodega is the defining step — by tasting and analysing each producer's contribution individually before blending, Semilla ensures that only the finest small separations make it into the final lot, building the candy-like lychee and star fruit complexity that defines this blend while maintaining the clean, bright structure that makes it so compelling.

THE CUP

A bright, candy-like, and deeply aromatic washed Sidra from five smallholder producers in San Agustín — lychee vibrancy, star fruit brightness, and sweet green grape complexity in a clean, sparkling cup with a long candy-like finish. A purposeful and beautifully executed lot that gives small producers a platform their quality deserves.

Flavour Notes

🍈 Lychee ⭐ Star Fruit 🍇 Sweet Green Grapes 🍬 Candy