Karol Ortega - Colombia

Juicy and complex. Tasting like elderflower syrup, lime zest and tropical fruits hints. 

Origin: Colombia
Region: San Agustín, Huila

Producer: Karol Ortega

Elevation: 1900 - 2000 masl
Variety: Sidra

 Process: Dry-Fermented Washed

Cherries are collected every three weeks. Once collected, they are left to ferment for 12 hours in a wooden hopper before being de-pulped. The cherries are then de-pulped and left to dry ferment for another 36 hours. The coffee is washed four times and then left to drain for six hours before being turned out onto raised beds to be dried for 18 days.

Roasted for: Filter


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We are thrilled to collaborate with Karol Ortega through our esteemed long-term partners Semilla and the Monkaaba project.

Karol is a young grower that together with her husband Diego, who is the son of the legend Arnulfo Leguizamo (past Cup of Excellence winner in Colombia), are producing some beautiful lots, including this Sidra. 

Diego and Karol have been vitally involved in Monkaaba, the smallholder-run initiative that operates as the local sourcing and support arm of Semilla in Colombia, pitching in financially to allow for the start-up of the farm-based roasting and cupping lab where all these lots are selected through.

Though the Leguizamo-Ortega family has had specialty access in the past, they have nonetheless found themselves desiring more, especially as Diego has taken the helm of the farm.

His father’s reputation for exceptional quality led to them procuring above average prices and some international market, but like many growers of the older generation he still often entered each new harvest unsure if his coffees would be purchased and if so, how much would be claimed.

This is a good reflection of the negative impacts of the quality-focused specialty market that reigns in competitive areas like San Agustin - though there may be more access to buying points that offer differentiated prices, smallholders are continually at the mercy of those who cup their coffee locally and determine its worth by a single sample. It continues to be common for excellent coffees to be scored lower at the buying point level in order to offer lower prices, while then being sold for a microlot price in the exterior.

As you’ll read below, this was a huge part of the motivation of the growers to form Monkaaba, so they could have more control over the narrative and sale of their coffees. Rather than relying on the word of dispassionate and sometimes completely corrupt buyers who control the price they receive and also keep them at arm's length from their final clients, Monkaaba was created so that smallholders would have free and unbiased access to information on the quality of their coffee, and on all stages in the coffee supply chain.

Beyond Karol and Diego’s financial implications from the beginning in Monkaaba, Karol has also been a formative member of the Monkaaba team who has jumped at the opportunity to learn as much as she can about the coffee production system past the farm level.

She was one of the first members of the community to join as an employee in the bodega and lab, first being in charge of the physical analysis of samples and managing the bodega  inventory to now managing the sample roasting and roasting of coffee for smallholders for a small fee, allowing them to drink their own coffees at home.

Her engagement in the lab has set an example for many other young people and young women, as there are now six other multigenerational smallholders - including Silvia Ordonez, Karen Burbano, Jhon Jairo Gomez, Damian Bolaños, and Alejo Ortega - working on a part-time basis for Monkaaba.

This progression shows the realization of the focus of forwarding peripheral smallholders on the supply chain. Going from producers with coffee and no steady buyer, to assessing their own coffees, roasting them, and managing the export and sale of them
leads them to a place of increased autonomy and agency, and of course, to an improved
accrued value.