Sidra

Sidra — also spelled Sydra, and sometimes sold as Bourbon Sidra — is a rare Arabica variety grown mainly in Ecuador and Colombia, prized for a floral, stone-fruit cup that has repeatedly turned up on the winner’s table at the World Barista Championship.¹

It is unusual for the opposite of the usual reason. Most famous varieties are famous for a documented story — where the seed came from, who bred it, what it was crossed with. Sidra has the fame and none of the paperwork: no coffee variety registry recognises it, and nobody has established what it genetically is.

Nobody knows what it is

The World Coffee Research Arabica variety catalogue — the closest thing the industry has to an official register of coffee varieties — carries no entry for Sidra at all.² That absence is the single most important fact about the variety.

The story that circulated first was that Sidra is a cross of Typica × Bourbon. That claim is repeated widely in roaster copy, but it has never been confirmed by genetic testing.¹ When farmers and roasters did send samples for testing, the results came back inconsistent — some resembling Ethiopian heirloom material, others pointing elsewhere. World Coffee Research’s own reading, as reported by Perfect Daily Grind, is that “Sidra” may be several different varieties that farmers all call by the same name.¹

In plain terms: when you buy a bag labelled Sidra, the label describes a trade name and a reputation, not a verified plant. That is the same documentation gap Premiumisation describes across the top of the specialty market — reputation travelling far ahead of records.

To verify

The Ethiopian-landrace claim. Two roaster-published accounts go further than the testing supports: Ozone Coffee writes that results “have consistently pointed to Ethiopian heirloom genetics rather than a Typica × Bourbon cross,”³ and Rigby Roastery, citing World Coffee Research, says Sidra “has no clearly identifiable genetic identity” and that “some say it is derived from Ethiopian landrace varietals.”⁴ Neither page could be fetched here, and both conflict in emphasis with Perfect Daily Grind’s account of conflicting test results.¹ Treat “Sidra is an Ethiopian landrace” as an unconfirmed hypothesis, not a finding.

To verify

The Nestlé origin story. The most repeated account is that Sidra emerged from a Nestlé coffee breeding facility in Pichincha province, Ecuador — one of a set of “unreleased” hybrids — with Ozone Coffee dating the lab’s activity to the 1990s.³ Perfect Daily Grind reports the same story in hedged language (“believed,” “reportedly”) and notes the facility has since closed;¹ Sweet Maria’s says Sidra “might have been part of a coffee plant breeding program… in the nurseries of a Nestlé facility in Ecuador.”⁵ No public Nestlé or World Coffee Research document confirming any of this was found. It is informed industry consensus, not established history.

To verify

Who introduced it. Multiple sources credit Don Olger Rogel with first bringing Sidra — and Typica Mejorada — into Ecuador’s specialty sector.¹⁴ Both hedge with “likely” or “reportedly,” and no statement from Rogel himself or any official registry backs it.

The plant

Sidra is a tall variety with distinctively thick trunks, growing up to about four metres, with dark green leaves and five-petalled flowers. Its cherries are larger and rounder than typical Arabica with pointed ends, and the beans are longer and thinner than most Arabica — a shape often compared to Geisha.¹

It wants altitude. The variety grows between roughly 1,650 and 1,800 metres above sea level, and reaches its highest cup quality above 1,700 m.¹ That narrow, high band is the main reason it stays rare: there simply isn’t much land where it performs, so it is planted on a far smaller commercial scale than mainstream Arabica varieties.¹

The scale of early planting was tiny. Producers put in around 1,800 Sidra trees in 2012, and a further 4,300 plants in 2015 once the variety started attracting specialty buyers.¹ Those are the only planting figures in the general record, and they describe a few hectares, not an industry.

Reported growing regions are Pichincha, Imbabura and Loja in Ecuador, and Cundinamarca, Huila and Valle del Cauca in Colombia.³

To verify

Disease behaviour and yield. Roaster-published accounts say Sidra needs shade and specific conditions, is susceptible to Coffee leaf rust but resistant to several other pests and diseases, and can be high-yielding per tree.³⁶ These come from producer and roaster observation; no formal agronomic trial data was found, and with the variety’s identity itself unresolved, resistance ratings for “Sidra” may not describe a single plant population at all.

What it tastes like

The cup is what everything else rests on. Reported descriptors cluster tightly:

• Ripe stone fruit — nectarine, apricot, peach — plus citrus and grape.¹
• Floral and tea-like aromatics, often compared to high-end Ethiopian coffees.¹⁶
• High sweetness, crisp acidity, and a velvety, well-rounded body; one producer-side description is “sweet, with notes of honey, malt, and red apple” at mild acidity.¹
• Processing swings it hard: washed Sidra is described as jasmine and stone fruit, while anaerobic naturals push toward cherry, blackberry and red wine.³

No standardised SCA cupping scores for Sidra appear in the general sources consulted — the marketing figures of 88–92 that circulate are not traceable to published score sheets. The scores below are the exception, because they come from official auction records.

Competition and auction record

• 2019 World Barista Championship (Boston). Champion Jooyeon Jeon competed with Sidra, and Cole Torode, who placed third, used it as well — his lot grown at La Palma y el Tucán in Colombia.¹
• 2021 Cup of Excellence Ecuador. Five Sydra lots placed, all from Loja, led by a natural from El Aguacate (Pablo Andrés Eguiguren Calisto) that took second overall at 90.21 and sold at $49.20/lb.⁷ Table below.
• 2022 World Barista Championship. Champion Anthony Douglas competed with Sidra.¹ His lot is widely associated with Finca El Diviso in Colombia and producer Nestor Lasso, as an anaerobic natural — but the farm, owner and processing behind that specific coffee are contradicted across sources and are flagged in detail on the Anthony Douglas note. Do not quote a farm or lot for it here.
• 2022 Cup of Excellence Ecuador. A washed Sydra from Hacienda Lugmapata (Familia Merino, Chimborazo) won the national competition at 90.28 and sold for $105.10/lb.⁸ Full table on Ecuador.
• 2025 Best of Panama, Varietals category. A natural Sidra lot named “Sidra Pentagon” placed seventh (V-07) with a score of 90.13, selling at auction for 404/kg** — 20 kg for a total of **8,080 — to One by One Coffee.⁹ Full table on Best of Panama results archive.

2021 Cup of Excellence Ecuador — the Sydra lots

This is the fullest primary record of the variety anywhere, because ACE publishes every rank, score and cleared price:⁷

	Rank	Lot	Producer	Region	Score	Price
1	2	El Aguacate	Pablo Andrés Eguiguren Calisto	Loja	90.21	$49.20/lb
2	5	Clara Luz	Servio Lennin Gonzalez Jiménez	Loja	89.68	$38.50/lb
3	6	Yamba Mine	Diana Velez Rodriguez	Loja	89.61	$48.40/lb
4	20	Santa Gertrudis	José Luis Eguiguren Pozo	Loja	87.57	$29.00/lb
5	21	Chorora	Olinka Velez Rodriguez	Loja	87.54	$20.00/lb

The El Aguacate lot was a natural, and at 189.93 lb it cleared $9,344.56 in total.⁷ Two things stand out. Every Sydra lot came from Loja, not from Pichincha where the variety is said to have started. And Sydra scored within 0.18 points of the champion — a Typica Mejorado — but sold for half the price per pound, which is what a variety’s name is worth in an auction room before the barista titles land. See Premiumisation.

Two world barista titles in four years is the whole reason Sidra is a name at all. It is also a good illustration of how competition works as a distribution channel: a variety with no registry entry and no confirmed pedigree became internationally sought-after because two people won a stage with it.

To verify

A “third place in Amsterdam” claim. One trade blog says a competitor using Sidra placed third at the 2019 World Barista Championship in Amsterdam.¹⁰ The placing is right but the city is not: the 2019 championship was held in Boston, as the World Barista Championship note records, and Amsterdam hosted 2018. Perfect Daily Grind, which is the source for Cole Torode’s third place, names no host city at all.¹ Treat the Amsterdam detail as an error, not a second event.

Farms and lots on record

To verify

Farm-level detail for Sidra is thin and mostly commercial. Three examples appear in the sources behind this note, none of which could be re-fetched to confirm:

• Café Granja La Esperanza — Potosí farm, Caicedonia, Valle del Cauca, Colombia. The producer’s own page reports 52 ha of Sidra at 1,400–2,000 m, ~1,340 mm annual rainfall, 73% humidity, 17–22 °C, processed as a natural with 48 hours in a mechanical dryer followed by 8 days on solar patios; cupping descriptors include tropical fruit, grapefruit, peppermint, red apple, watermelon, green tea, cocoa, mango and a guanábana finish.¹¹ The page returned HTTP 404 when fetched here.
• El Vergel Estate — “Magnum Sidra,” Fresno, Tolima, Colombia. A green-coffee listing names the farm, region and variety but gives no altitude or processing detail.¹²
• Galo Morales, San José de Minas, Pichincha, Ecuador. A UK roaster lists a natural Sidra at 1,450 m, exported by Sensum, harvested “Summer 2025.”¹³ Note the altitude sits well below the 1,650–1,800 m band described as typical.¹ This is seller copy, not a producer document.

Related

• Geisha — the other rare variety Sidra is constantly compared to, and the benchmark it competes against
• Typica · Bourbon · Bourbon-Typica group — the parentage it was long assumed to have, and never confirmed
• World Coffee Research — the body whose variety catalogue has no Sidra entry
• Anthony Douglas · World Barista Championship — the 2022 title won on a Sidra
• Best of Panama · Best of Panama results archive — where its Panamanian auction score and price sit
• Cup of Excellence · Alliance for Coffee Excellence — the body whose Ecuadorian auction tables hold its best-documented scores and prices
• La Palma y el Tucán — the Colombian farm that grew the Sidra used for third place at the 2019 World Barista Championship
• Ecuador · Colombia — its two producing countries
• Coffee leaf rust — the disease it is reported to be vulnerable to
• Washed process · Natural process · Anaerobic fermentation — the processing choices that swing its cup the most
• Coffee scoring · Cupping — how competition lots are judged
• Premiumisation — why a variety with no paperwork can still command auction prices

Official links

• Official site — World Coffee Research Arabica variety catalogue — the authoritative variety register; note it carries no Sidra entry
• Official results — Alliance for Coffee Excellence, Ecuador 2021 — the auction record behind the Sydra score and price table above

Footnotes

1. Perfect Daily Grind — What is Sidra coffee? — confirmed via WebFetch; source of the altitude band, plant morphology, conflicting genetic testing, and the 2019 and 2022 World Barista Championship users ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶ ↩⁷ ↩⁸ ↩⁹ ↩¹⁰ ↩¹¹ ↩¹² ↩¹³ ↩¹⁴ ↩¹⁵ ↩¹⁶ ↩¹⁷

2. World Coffee Research — Arabica variety catalogue — confirmed via WebFetch; no Sidra or Sydra entry among the catalogued varieties ↩

3. Ozone Coffee — Sidra coffee: origins, genetics & why it wins championships (HTTP 429 on fetch) ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵

4. Rigby Roastery — Sidra coffee, Finca El Diviso ↩ ↩²

5. Sweet Maria’s Coffee Library — Sidra (HTTP 403 on fetch) ↩

6. The Basic Barista — What is Sidra coffee beans? ↩ ↩²

7. Alliance for Coffee Excellence — Ecuador 2021 results and auction — confirmed via WebFetch; source of every rank, producer, region, score and price in the 2021 Sydra table ↩ ↩² ↩³

8. Alliance for Coffee Excellence — Ecuador 2022 results and auction — confirmed via WebFetch ↩

9. Best of Panama official auction — Canvas of Terroir results ↩

10. Yoco Coffee — Sidra: a coffee hybrid from Ecuador — not fetched here; the source of the “Amsterdam” placing claim ↩

11. Café Granja La Esperanza — Sidra (HTTP 404 on fetch) ↩

12. Coffee Green Beans — Magnum Sidra ↩

13. Bold Bean Coffee — Ecuador, Galo Morales, natural Sidra ↩