Familia Ortega Gomez

Info

Back for the sixth season, we’re excited to once again offer the consistently delicious Red Caturra from Esnaider Ortega Gomez and his family’s farm, Finca Villa Maria.

The history of coffee production in the Ortega-Gomez family is multi-generational, tracing its way back nearly sixty years to the earliest days of coffee production in San Agustín, Huila. Esnaider’s grandfather and great grandfather first began planting coffee amongst their other subsistence crops, such as maize, in pursuit of a better life for themselves. The family land has been passed down through the generations. Esnaider and his father, Don Olgar Ortega Bolaños, now own two separate farms in the area - La Esperanza and Villa Maria. This specific coffee comes from Finca Villa Maria, which is also the location of their small beneficio that’s outfitted with fermentation tanks and drying tables. It’s here that Esnaider and Don Olgar spend the bulk of their time during the harvest, directly handling the fermentation and drying processes.

Since graduation from highschool, Esnaider has fully committed himself side by side with his father on the farms. They both share a meticulous attention to detail, genuine curiosity for experimentation, and belief that a more equitable and profitable supply chain is possible. Though Esnaider’s coffees are often sold internationally under his own name, he’s requested that we honor the labor of the entire family, who all help in the process.

The Red Caturra variety from Familia Ortega Gomez is incredibly sweet and structured. It’s truly a near-ideal representation of Colombian coffee from the Huila region. It offers a balanced acidity reminiscent of red fruits like apple, cherry, and raspberry. You’ll find a clean sweetness up front, like white sugar and honey; while the aftertaste finishes with denser flavors, like chocolate, vanilla, and cola. We’re tasting: fruit punch, cherry, raspberry, blood orange, honeycrisp apple, vanilla, nougat, almond, brown sugar, caramel, cola, milk chocolate, black tea, baking spices.

Relationship 

In early 2020 we were introduced to the young and extremely passionate coffee producer, Esnaider Ortega Gomez, via our friend Brendan Adams of Semilla Coffee. It was around this time they first began working together to build a dedicated crew of roasting partners to purchase the bulk of Esnaider’s harvest at high, sustainable prices. After being blown away by some early harvest samples and forming our own friendship through ongoing talks with Esnaider over the span of a few months (now years), we decided to jump on board with the project.

1000 Faces has synced with Semillia in committing to a long-term investment and relationship with the Ortega Gomez family. We’re hoping to shift the traditional farmer-buyer power dynamic by working directly with Esnaider to explore their cost of production, and we’re aiming to pay a true living wage for their coffees - which equates to some of the highest prices paid for a traditional washed coffee in all of Colombia.

Our relationship is ever evolving, as we’re chatting with Esnaider on a very regular basis. Even had the pleasure of traveling with him to Honduras in 2023! His vision in the past couple of years has grown to establish a larger group of growers, collectively known as Monkaaba. In addition to securing specialty market access through Semilla, one of Esnaider’s main goals is to invest in ongoing education that will grow the group’s knowledge and skills to ensure future success. Esnaider holds regular gatherings to cup and brew each other's coffee, which has led to a much more holistic understanding and confidence in the quality of their coffee.

Semilla Coffee shares about Monkaaba:

The idea for this came to Esnaider thanks to his experience over the last ten years working as a sample roaster and cupper. While he was always happy to see producers receive a solid price for their coffees through this exporter, he noticed that there was very little understanding at the buyer level of what went into coffee production. Too often he watched coffees produced by people he knew be rejected due to a single cupping session, and for this producer to receive little explanation of why it was rejected or what could be improved. What worried him the most was how this process could be confusing or demotivating to producers seeking to enter the specialty market, and he knew there had to be many who were being overlooked as a result.

Rather than focusing only on his own success as a grower, he wants to see all those around him engaged in sustainable, meaningful relationships. Now with Monkaaba, he commits himself to this on the daily. Not only does he hold weekly cupping sessions for all producers who would like to have their samples evaluated, but he also invites all those willing and interested to come and cup alongside him.

The early results have been amazing as he’s collected coffees from all over the area and hosted growers of all levels of experience and age at his farm, to cup and to discuss in depth about their goals and dreams and challenges.

Processing

Ripe, red cherries are delivered to the beneficio at Villa Maria and left in open containers to begin a brief whole cherry fermentation for 12 hours. They are then floated and sorted to remove any under ripe or insect damaged fruits. Coffee then moves directly to the depulper, where the skin and mucilage is removed, and the seeds undergo a dry fermentation in tile tanks for 24 hours. The parchment coffee is finally turned out onto heavily shaded, raised drying beds, where they are constantly tended to by Esnaider and Olgar over a 30 day drying period.

Brewing

This coffee tends to perform well across all brew methods and is quite forgiving. It’s tasting nice along a wide spectrum of grind sizes as well. On the finer end, you’ll find deeper sweetness and more classic coffee flavors - brown sugar, vanilla, chocolate, apple butter. On the coarser end, you’ll highlight brighter fruit and complexity - orange, cherry, grapefruit, honey, sweet tea. The ideal brew should produce a combination of juicy yet balanced red fruit flavors coupled with a full, structured sweetness.

If your coffee is thin in body and lacking sweetness / depth, with flavors like under-ripe stone fruits and chocolate wafer - try grinding finer.

If your coffee is bitter and has a particularly dry aftertaste, with flavors like over-steeped black tea and roasted nuts, - try grinding coarser.