Sidra is one of the most sought-after varieties in specialty coffee. At this house we know it up close: Carlos Escobar was 2024 National Filter Coffee Champion competing with a sidra.
If you came here looking for what sidra coffeeis, we'll tell you without the hype: what's known about its origin, what's still debated, what it tastes like in the cup and why baristas competing for a world title choose it again and again. And we tell you from experience: at Dif≠erente we roast sidra from Colombian producers, and it was with a sidra that Carlos Escobar won Colombia's National Filter Coffee Championship in 2024, before reaching the final of the 2025 World Brewers Cup in Jakarta, where he placed third in the world — Colombia's first-ever world filter final.
Sidra is an arabica coffee variety of extremely high cup quality, first reported in Ecuador in the 1990s and now grown in Colombia as well. It's demanding in the field, susceptible to leaf rust and modest in yield, but its sweetness, bright acidity and floral notes made it a favorite of the world championships.
That such a hard-to-grow variety has spread anyway says a lot: producers plant it because the cup justifies it. It's not a coffee for volume; it's a coffee for quality. That's why you'll almost always find it as microlots, with full farm and producer traceability, and at above-average prices. At this house we believe that's honest: behind every sidra lot there's more agronomic risk and more work than behind a castillo or a caturra.
The most widespread version says sidra was born at a Nestlé research station in Pichincha, Ecuador, and that it's a cross of typica and red bourbon. But genetic testing doesn't confirm it: several analyses place it closer to native Ethiopian varieties, and its formal history was never documented.
Here we have to be honest: no one has the full story. The station where it was supposedly developed closed, the variety was never officially released, and analyses cited by Ozone Coffee show contradictory results: some plants sold as sidra group genetically with Ethiopian material, and others don't even match one another. Organizations such as World Coffee Research have warned that different plants may be circulating under the name "sidra". Does that change what's in your cup? No. But if someone sells you sidra with an exact, no-nuance genealogy, be skeptical.
Sidra is recognized for high sweetness, bright acidity and a very marked floral and fruity character. In washed coffees jasmine, citrus and stone fruit appear; in naturals, peach, nectarine and red fruit. Extended fermentations add cherry, blackberry and notes reminiscent of red wine.
It's a profile closer to a fine Ethiopian than to a traditional Colombian — another argument from those who defend its Ethiopian lineage. In our SIDRA Natural from Finca La Coqueta ($80.000), the natural process pushes ripe fruit and a syrupy body; in the SIDRA HydroHoney by Jhoan Vergara ($95.000), an experimental honey process keeps the juicy acidity with a cleaner sweetness. Same variety name, two very different cups: that's how malleable sidra is to the process.
Because it combines aromatic complexity with structured sweetness: it gives judges a lot to describe and sustains high scores. Sidra won the World Barista Championship in 2019 (Jooyeon Jeon) and 2022 (Anthony Douglas), and the World Brewers Cup in 2023 (Carlos Medina, with a Colombian sidra).
The list is serious. Jeon won in Boston 2019 with a sidra from La Palma y El Tucán (Cundinamarca, Colombia). Douglas won in Melbourne 2022 with an 80-hour anaerobic natural from Finca El Diviso (Huila). Medina won the 2023 World Brewers Cup with a natural sidra from Finca Potosí, of Café Granja La Esperanza (Valle del Cauca). And in 2024, Carlos Escobar — this house's roaster — won Colombia's National Filter Coffee Championship with a sidra, the same path that took him to third in the world at the 2025 World Brewers Cup in Jakarta. We didn't choose this variety for fashion: we compete with it.
In Colombia sidra is grown mainly in Cundinamarca, Huila and Valle del Cauca, generally between 1,650 and 1,800 meters. La Palma y El Tucán was among the first farms to plant it commercially, and El Diviso, in Huila, made it a protagonist of recent championships.
It's a demanding plant: it needs shade, doesn't resist leaf rust and is vulnerable to other coffee diseases, so each lot is a real bet by the producer. The lots we roast at Dif≠erente come from that same school of precision coffee growing: the natural from Finca La Coqueta and the hydrohoney from Jhoan Vergara, producers with names of their own, not "regional blends". If you want to compare sidra with the other varieties we work with, in all the house varieties you'll find the complete map.
Sidra is worked washed, natural, honey and with extended anaerobic fermentations. The washed highlights jasmine and citrus; the natural concentrates ripe fruit and body; experimental processes — like long anaerobics — take the cup toward cherry, blackberry and wine, with results that have already won world titles.
There's no "correct" process: there are decisions. The 2022 natural that won the World Barista Championship fermented for 80 hours; there are impeccable competition washes with short fermentations. Our honest advice: if you're coming from traditional coffee, start with a honey or a washed to understand the variety, then move to the natural to see how far the fruit goes.
Look for roasters that name the farm, producer and process — it's the only guarantee that the "sidra" in the bag is a real microlot. At Dif≠erente we have two: the SIDRA Natural from Finca La Coqueta for $80.000 and the SIDRA HydroHoney by Jhoan Vergara for $95.000, roasted in Manizales.
We roast them in the house of Carlos Escobar, with the same criteria used to choose a competition coffee: the cup first, everything else after. If you end up loving sidra, the natural next step is the ombligón, the other flagship variety of this generation of Colombian coffee growing.
Try the house Sidra See all the varieties
Published by Dif≠erente · Manizales · 2026-10-14