Nicaragua Ojo de Agua

The farm is located in Mozonte, Nueva Segovia, which is reaching up to one of the highest points in Nicaragua. This region is well known for its high quality of coffee. Most of the farms are relatively small in size and family owned and operated. The farmers and their families are hard- working and proud of producing coffee of a very high quality.

Katherin and her family are investing a great deal of effort in the farm where they are working on a daily basis, their farm is just shy of 10 acres and the soil is sandy, rich in clay and loam. They are eager to achieve the highest quality of their crops which are Caturra, red and yellow Catuai, Maragogype and Catimor grown under the shade of guava, lemon, orange, avocado and oak trees.

Katherin picks and processes her coffee herself and this lot was dried on raised beds for two weeks.

The long, slow drying at high altitude gives the coffee better longevity and excellent quality in the cup.

Katherin also grows a range of vegetables for the local market.

Cafetos de Segovia is a dry mill located in Ocotal and surrounded by coffee land, making it easy for producers to deliver the wet parchment the same day as they harvest and process it.

In 2015, a local producer family realised that the prices paid for coffee cherries in the region were too low and that they could produce high-quality coffee on their own farm. They decided to create a dry mill to add value to their product, and that mill is now run by sisters Martha and Ana, along with their team.

The family own a few farms that were inherited from Martha and Ana's father. Like many properties in the area (in the north, bordering Honduras), the story of the farms ownership is a complex one. From 1975-1979 the Nicaraguan revolution hit the entire country, but it was even more intense at the Honduran border, forcing the family to emigrate to the USA. They returned to Ocotal six years later to find that their house and much of their farmland had been seized by the government. Only the house was returned to them they had lost more than 100 manzanas (70ha) of coffee farm.

The dry mill services their farms and greenhouse which they built in 2020 to grow experimental lots and more delicate varieties but also the coffee of some relatives and a few non-related producers from the area. In total, 47 other producers work with Cafetos de Segovia. During peak harvest, up to 300 quintales per day is delivered to the mill, which has a drying capacity of 3,000 quintales at any one time (1 quintal = approximately 46kg green beans). Up to 30 people work at the mill during the season.

Most of the coffee is delivered as wet parchment or cherries and 80% of the lots are washed. The drying is usually started on a patio, in the shade for 5-6 days and then in full sun. All patios are covered with black net so that the coffee is not laid directly on the floor. Shade drying is necessary as the sun hits hard at this lower altitude (less than 900masl). The naturals are moved every 3-4 hours and the coffee is piled during the hottest hours of the day.

Cafetos de Segovia submits lots to the national Cup of Excellence every year, and always ranks highly.

The largest country in Central America, Nicaragua is known as ‘The Land of Lakes and Volcanoes’—in fact, it boasts more than 25 volcanoes (eight of which are active!) and 14 crater lakes. Some 95% of coffee in Nicaragua is shade grown, in which a canopy of trees is used to encourage slow and more complex cherry development as well as promote biodiversity. Many farmers choose productive shade trees that can also be used as a secondary income stream.

In the late 1990s and early 2000s, Nicaragua was severely impacted by a series of extreme climate events that decimated the country’s coffee industry. Over the course of several days in 1998, Hurricane Mitch drenched Central America, killing over 11,000 people, mainly in Honduras and Nicaragua. Landslides, winds, and heavy rain washed away coffee plantations, destroying an estimated 30% of Nicaragua’s production, as well as roads and other infrastructure.

This was followed by a period of severe drought in Nicaragua, which coincided with a coffee price crash due to high production in other countries. The price crisis of the early 2000s caused many producers to declare bankruptcy, unable to make a living let alone rebuild their farms after the devastation of Hurricane Mitch and the droughts that followed.

In 2002, Nicaragua became the third country to host a Cup of Excellence green coffee competition. The Alliance for Coffee Excellence brought the CoE to Nicaragua as a way to help the country’s coffee industry recover: farmers submitted 285 samples to be judged, with the best 23 being selected for auction. The highest price received, $11.75 per pound was 20 times the commodity price at the time, and offered the world a glimpse of what Nicaraguan coffee could be.

Since then, the CoE has spread to most other producing countries. The competition has proven instrumental in reframing coffee as something worth paying high prices for, and has helped shine a light on coffee farmers in Nicaragua and beyond as some of the most crucial contributors in the industry.

Over the years the importance of CoE to Nicaragua’s coffee sector has continued to grow, and has attracted a younger generation interested in making a name for themselves through their harvests. Cafetos de Segovia (whom we source our Nicaraguan coffee from through Falcon Coffee) and their partner farms participate in the competition every year, often placing highly, while the winning lots have consistently come from the Nueva Segovia region.

Our speciality coffees are 100% traceable and ethically sourced. We work direct with farmers, or through trusted partners, to bring you the best coffee from around the world.

Sourced in partnership with: Falcon Coffees
Producer relationship length: 2 years