Nicaragua - Loma Fria

This coffee is a community lot, made up of the combined harvests and efforts of 5 farms in Nueva Segovia, Nicaragua’s northernmost coffee growing region.

El Ciphers, Mirjam, Santa Helena and Santa Isabel lie in Diplito, with Las Naranjas in neighbouring Mozonte, all inside the Serranías de Dipilto–Jalapa Nature Reserve. Coffee grows in the shade of Inga, Búcaros and Banana trees and is fertilized with compost and coffee pulp. Every farm in the lot is geolocated and documented in a traceability report, and the coffee is grown in a way that respects the habitats of local wildlife and protects water sources and flora. Each of the 5 farms is less than 51 hectares, all situated between 1,250 and 1,500 meters above sea level.

Harvest season here runs from November to April, with farmers navigating the steep terrain to hand pick only the ripe cherries.

Nicaragua’s coffee production is very important to its economy, making up 20% of agricultural GDP, and providing around half of all agricultural jobs. The majority of that production is arabica, with robusta only being approved for planting in 2013. To help preserve this important crop, and to contribute to speciality coffee globally, Nicaragua is one of the hosts for the International Multilocation Variety Trial.This is a long running research program, looking to open up varieties to new origins, where they aren’t normally grown, by studying how they respond to different environments. The coffees are assessed for yields, disease resistance and overall cup quality, creating a dataset that can help farmers make informed decisions about what to plan in their particular terroir. The more long term aim is to create resistance to climate change, as we can see what coffees favour the conditions that we are headed towards.

Once picked, the coffee cherries are first floated to remove defects, before an aerobic fermentation stage. After this, they are washed in clean moving water to remove the mucilage. The resulting “parchment” coffee (referring to the shell-like layer under the fruit) is transferred to Cafetos de Segovia Dry Mill, where it is spread across African beds to dry, until it reaches a 12% moisture content. Made up of 3 varieties, Catimor, Caturra and Red Catuai, which are all dwarf plants that are happy growing close together, allowing for greater overall yields, as well as fitting in amongst the shade trees. Though they all share some relation to Bourbon, the three varieties do differ, particularly when it comes to leaf rust resistance. This is an ever evolving problem in the coffee growing world, so a range of varieties can be a great way to build resilience. Red Catuai is considered particularly susceptible, so planting it alongside the hardier Catimor helps to hedge against the rust.