Santa Elena is a smaller farm that is part of Finca Buenos Aires. Buenos Aires totals 215 hectares in the Jinotega growing region. Santa Elena is much smaller, and the entire lot is 23 bags. We cupped through a few small lots from their other farms and I was really impressed with the clean sweetness of this cultivar-specific batch. It is all Caturra, which is a cultivated mutation of Bourbon that occurred in Brazil in the mid '30s, but was planted in South and Central America mostly in the 1950s. Buenos Aires is a rather low farm compared to other origins we buy, with this lot coming from about 1250 meters. I found it very balanced, clean, moderately bright and very sweet, perhaps showing how relative farm altitude can be in relation to cup quality.

The Santa Elena Caturra has an interesting dry fragrance with tamarind fruit and honey nut cereal. There's a bit of maltose, caramel and milk chocolate, but as you add the hot water, the wet aroma shifts to a more violet-rose scented coffee with salted caramel sweetness, fudge and praline. The cup is really nice; clean and crisp brightness, peach fruit notes, and a succinct, malty, sweetly-disappearing aftertaste. Praline and honey, as suggested by the aroma, are the dominant roast taste at City+ level. It's a very restrained cup, balanced, but borders on being juicy in flavor and mouthfeel. It finishes with a nice light milk chocolate bittersweet. I am really happy with this coffee, such a nice "crowd-pleaser" cup profile, accessible, but with nice nuances as well.