A collective effort from the producers of Monkaaba. Each producer delivers cherries to the bodega, coffee is then sorted and milled before being sent to Descafecol for the decaffeination process. The seeds are steamed to remove the silver skin before being moistened to open up the pores. Seeds are then submerged in a sugarcane derived ethyl acetate solution which strips the caffeine from the coffee. Coffees are steamed once more to remove the solution and finally dried again to achieve moisture under 12%.

The idea behind Guarapo stems from the founding vision of Semilla - to work closely with a select group of smallholders and buy all of their coffee at a differentiated price, every harvest.

To begin, the coffees that made up Guarapo came mainly from the bigger producers in the Monkaaba network, such as Jose Burbano, Augusto Ortega, and Pastor Ordoñez. As larger producers, they manage varieties that would typically not be sold for specialty sale but rather to a conventional market for quick cash.
Knowing they had this volume and that they wouldn’t sell on quality alone in 2021 Semilla committed to not leaving any of their coffee behind.

Heads of Monkaaba, Esnaider and Didier Ortega were initially hesitant to decaffeinate the shareholders coffees, feeling that quality may be lost. However with the quality and  success of Guarapo, the project has started to include many smaller growers.

Guarapo is the name given to fresh pressed sugar cane juice in Colombia. Many coffee farms have wild sugar cane growing across their land, a fitting representation of what the project was aiming for. Perhaps the most enjoyable part about the EA decaf process is seeing how this sugarcane augments, rather than detracts from the cup. Sweetness is enhanced, and a small amount of fruit flavour seems to also be imbued in the coffee when compared side by side with the original blend sample. 

Now aware that decaf can not only be an important life line of support for the smallholders in the Monkaaaba network, without any sacrifice for quality or traceability makes this a no-brainer for all in the chain.