This is our first time featuring an SL-28 from Monkaaba, and this lot is special as it's comprised of a few of our favourite producers from the Monkaaba project including Esnaider Ortega and Pastor Ordoñez. Each producer follows their own process. Coffees were blended at delivery to the Monkaaba bodega to make an exportable lot. This SL28 blend features two of the producers that were in the first SL28 blend exported by Monkaaba, Esnaider Ortega and Damian Bolaños, and in a small quantity, a new female member of the project, Maria Alejandra Astudillo. All four of these growers are producers who have been committed to succeeding in the specialty market for years, and a part of that strategy has been to add new and unique varieties to their repertoire as a means of differentiation within the quality market. Of course, as is often the case with this group, the benefit of the whole is always prioritized. It was Esnaider and Augusto Ortega who first had SL28 seeds, and they proceeded to distribute them to various other growers in the Monkaaba network with the hope of seeing all of these producers benefit from this prized variety. Esnaider and others began planting SL28 in late 2020, and as is common knowledge of varietals or exotic varieties, it’s taken four years for these trees to produce anything of consequence. Even still, the first fruits of these types of crops were very limited, and as such, we made the collective decision to blend these coffees to see them exported and build a client base for these coffees going forward. SL28 is among the most well-known and well-regarded varieties of Africa. It has consequently spread from Kenya, where it was originally selected in the 1930s, to other parts of Africa (it is important in Arabica-growing regions of Uganda, in particular) and now to Latin America. The variety is suited for medium to high altitudes and shows resistance to drought, but is susceptible to the major diseases of coffee. SL28 is notable for its rusticity—a quality meaning that it can be left untended for years or even decades at a time, and then return to successful production. There are SL28 trees in many parts of Kenya that are 60-80 years old and still productive.