The Coffees of Nicaragua

Nicaraguan coffees from the Segovia, Jinotega and Matagalpa regions are underrated. They often possess interesting cup character along with body and balance, outperforming many other balanced Central American and South American high-grown coffees in the cup. Nicaragua coffees have a wide range of flavor attributes: Some cup like Mexican coffees from Oaxaca, others like Guatemala. Some are citrusy and bright, such as the coffees of Dipilto in Nueva Segovia department. For me, Jinotega and Matagalpa coffees can demonstrate their remarkable versatility in a wide range of roasts, from light City roast through Full City and into the Vienna range. The botanical cultivars utilized are traditional: Typica, some Bourbon and Maragogype dominate, along with Caturra and Paca. There is some of the dreaded Catimor varietal, but many farms have removed it after the "catimor craze" 10-20 years ago.

Map of Nicaragua

Good Nicaraguan coffees are considered a "classic" cup: great body, clean flavor, and balance. They are unique among Centrals in the fact that the highest grown (SHG grade: Strictly High Grown) do not develop the pronounced and sharp acidity of other Centrals. In season, we offer some new "exotic" cultivar coffees too, a Pacamara Peaberry , a longberry "Java" cultivar, and the large bean Maragogype. Pulp Natural process is also a variation that gives the cup great body and a slightly rustic fruited layer.

Again, if you are a fan of a heavy Full City roast, or a Vienna roast (in either case, you are letting the 2nd crack start and you stop the roast before it gains its momentum), then you really need to try a Jinotega/Matagalpa Nicaraguan at that roast degree. They have enough body to stand up to these roasts and the great balance and pungent bittersweetness is unparalleled! Roasted to Vienna stage, these coffees can make excellent, unique single-origin espresso. Check out my travelogues from the Cup of Excellence 2003 or Cup of Excellence 2004 trips, or more lately from January '06 and even more recently, the Nicargua Cup of Excellence 2006

Wooden rakes used to rotate coffee for even patio-drying.

La Union Co-op: traditional Bourbon and Caturra grown under
a shade canopy, with banana too!

Current Crop Comments:

Maybe we offered too many Nicaragua selections the past year, but that's because there were so many nice coffees to offer. It sounds like circular logic, but nothing inspires my buying impulse like a good cup! Show me a great sample, I buy. Miraflor Coop is one lot we have set aside for the new year, and it has arrived with a fantastic cup. Our exotic cultivar coffees are here too: Pacamara Peaberry is excellent, Java Longberry is the best lot we have received to date. But people forget about Nicaragua cup quality. It can be a problem when many coffee customers are stuck on Costa Rica and Guatamala as their centrals, nomatter the cup quality. The Cup of Excellence coffees were wonderful this year, and priced really well too. The Pacamara Peaberry from the Mierisch farm was outstanding, and we have some other compelling new cultivars to offer in 06 (I went down in January to cup them). In 2006 I will probably be in the same bind, a lot of great-cupping Nicaraguan coffee to offer, and a lot of emails asking for Costa Rica. Oy vey!

Nicaragua Cup of Excellence competition in Managua, a long while back. Actually this was my first time on a CoE Judging Panel. Since then I have been on many, including 4 in Nicaragua.

Nicaragua Limoncillo -Java Longberry Cultivar
Country:	Nicaragua	Grade:	SHG	Region:	Matagalpa	Mark:	Limoncillo Estate
Processing:	Wet-Process	Crop:	May 2008 Arrival	Appearance:	.2 d/300gr, 17-18+ Screen	Varietal:	100% Java Cultivar (Long form)
Dry Fragrance (1-5)		3.5	Notes: This is an exotic selection: grown in Nicaragua, pure old-type Java cultivar ... at least that's how the story goes. How did this come to be? There was a private coffee research labratory that had experimental gardens, including a selection of traditional Ethiopian and Indonesian cultivars. During the unstable political years in Nicaragua, it went out of business. A coffee farmer who happened to know the main researcher there was aware they were working with old heirloom longberry seedstock, but did not have access to the seeds ... well, until the place shut down. Then somebody surprisingly showed up at their door with 20 Lbs of prepared coffee seed, no questions asked, marked "Variedad Java". Java? Ethiopia Longeberry? It's a bit unclear but in the cup there are hints of both. Planting an unknown seed stock without knowing the full results of the lab testing. But that's exactly what happened, and the results are quite extraordinary and, as I mentioned before "exotic". Why? The cup character is unlike any other Nicaragua coffee I know of, especially in the light roast when you get a complete representation of the "origin flavor" of this coffee, unmasked by roast. You will notice immediately the unusual seed shape: a longbean form with tapered ends, almost like a football (uh, US football). This is actually unlike modern Java offerings that are hybrids, and more like seedstock originating in Kaffa, Ethiopia, and traveling a circuitous route via Holland to the "East Indies" in the hands of the Dutch. And you may know, it was the Dutch that planted all that coffee in Java. This cup is very unusual for a Nicaragua, and not a Java either, but something new formed from the two influences, with a good bit of Ethiopia in there too. There is the slick, heavier body of the Java, the low acidity, and some of the nutty notes in the lighter roast found from that Indonesian island. But there is a sweetness (very subtle, as the cup cools) and brightness (very moderate) not found in Java coffees. It is more balanced. There is a mild lime note that adds zest to the cup, and a slight smokey quality in the finish, as the cup comes down in temperature. Overall, it's mild and balanced, but I find it a unique example of the confluence of cultivar and origin influences upon the final cup. This cup is very unusual for a Nicaragua, and not a Java either, but something new formed from the two influences. There is the slick, heavier body of the Java, the low acidity, and some of the nutty notes in the lighter roast found from that Indonesian island. But there is a sweetness (very subtle, as the cup cools) and brightness not found in Java coffees. It is more balanced. The aroma has a "lemon wafer cookie" aspect, and is more sweet and floral than previous offerings of this coffee. There is a mild lemon note that adds zest to the cup, and a slight smokey quality in the finish, as the cup comes down in temperature. Overall, it's mild and balanced, but I find it a unique example of the confluence of cultivar and origin influences upon the final cup. Another interesting sidenote: under a modified name, a sister lot of this same coffee attained #2 in this years Nicaragua Cup Of Excellence, which confirms what I have thought for a few years running... this is very unique coffee.
Wet Aroma (1-5)		3.7
Brightness - Acidity (1-10)		8.6
Flavor - Depth (1-10)		8.6
Body - Movement (1-5)		3.8
Finish - Aftertaste (1-10)		8.7
Cupper's Correction (1-5)		1	Intensity/Prime Attribute: Mild intensity/Interesting body, flavors and mild brightness.
add 50		50	Roast: City+ to Full City +: a good chocolate roast taste develops at FC+, and this coffee can perform very well as a Java in a blend, but you need a C+ roast to find the lemon cookie flavor!
Score (Max. 100)		87.9	Compare to: An incomparable combination of origin influences and cultivar influence.

Nicaragua Pacamara Peaberry
Country:	Nicaragua	Grade:	SHG	Region:	Matagalpa	Mark:	Meirisch Farms
Processing:	Wet-Process	Crop:	May 2008 Arrival	Appearance:	.2 d/300gr, 19+ PB Screen	Varietal:	100% Red Pacamara
Dry Fragrance (1-5)		3.4	Notes: Pacamara in itself is an oddity ... this large bean is grown on few farms since the requirements to process it, and tolerance for this low-yield cultivar are both rare. But here is something even stranger: Pacamara Peaberry. And beyond the shape of the seed, the coffee has a unique cup character from a standard Pacamara lot. Some background: Pacamara is a distinct cultivar of Arabica coffee, more specifically it is a subtype of the large bean Maragogype and Pacas, a natural hybrid from El Salvador. Maragogype is called the "elephant bean" for its incredibly large size, and is a spontaneous variation of Typica. Now, bean size per se has nothing to do with cup quality: a bigger seed doesn't make a better cup. But the argument for Maragogype and Pacamara is that the tree produces fewer cherries and flavor is more concentrated. I have tasted some very bland Pacamara that was lower grown, so this isn't always true. And hey, once you grind it up it all looks the same! On the other hand I have had some coffees that had outstanding cup qualities, surpassed all the rival samples in blind cupping, and just happened to be Pacamara. Pacamara coffees are often pooled from a small region of growers, since each independently would not have enough to form a lot. So in a sense, these are like pearls in a bed of oysters, and even in local markets of coffee-producing areas they sell for 3x to 4x the going price. This unique Peaberry lot has cup qualities that are brighter, more dynamic, and unusual than the flat bean Pacamara lot from which it is derived. Mierisch family farms has Pacamara chiefly on the Limonocillo farm in Matagalpa, and they grow enough to save the very small percent of Peaberry just for us. In fact, there is a floral note that reminds me of the longberry Ethiopia-derived Gesha coffees from Panama, not in the citric aspects of the Gesha, but in exotic secondary flavors. It harkens to the Ethiopian Yirgacheffe floral dimension; I feel I could fake this cup profile by blending a really good Central with a Yirgacheffe or wet-process Sidamo. But why do that when you can get the same cup from a pure, single-farm cultivar. What a complex and nuanced cup! An unusual smokey sweetness pervades in the cup from start to finish. There's ripe fruited notes, mango skins, and spice. When the cup is hot, there is zesty sweet red pepper, a dash of black pepper pungency, a sweet mild tobacco note, and that nice ripe fruity note. The aromatics are pronounced; sweet, syrupy and a touch herby. The cup flavors have an unusual sweetness to them, floral at first and then sage, cola (and a bit of smokiness). It's not one of those simple, sweet clean Centrals, and it isn't one of those weird earthy Indonesians, but this coffee has a different kind of funky cup character ... but somehow it works and the flavors knit together quite well. Roasting, as with other Pacamara and Maragogype coffees, should be attended to carefully since the large bean will not move in the roaster the way other coffees do.
Wet Aroma (1-5)		3.6
Brightness - Acidity (1-10)		8.5
Flavor - Depth (1-10)		8.6
Body - Movement (1-5)		3.4
Finish - Aftertaste (1-10)		8.5
Cupper's Correction (1-5)		1	Intensity/Prime Attribute: Medium intensity / Unusual cup flavors and aftertaste
add 50		50	Roast: I like the City roast the most - very dynamic cup flavors. But even the light Vienna roast had plenty of "origin character" as did the 2 FC roasts I did.
Score (Max. 100)		87	Compare to: A very different coffee from Centrals in general due to this unique cultivar. This is a unique lot, with exceptional cup character.