About This Coffee
Asociación Aldea Global was founded in 1992 as a pilot project with just 22 producers, focused on promoting organic, environmentally friendly production in the rural communities of northern Nicaragua. By 1996 it had formalized as an association, and in 2023 it entered a new phase as a Socially Responsible Enterprise. Today it serves more than 14,000 producers across Jinotega, Matagalpa, Estelí, Madriz and Nueva Segovia, offering financial services, agricultural inputs through its sister company AldeaZON, specialty coffee commercialization through Aldea Coffee, and sustainable development programs through Fundación Aldea across more than 900 coffee-growing communities.
Among Aldea Global's programs is Tierra Madre, an initiative created to champion the participation of women in the coffee value chain. In Jinotega, women hold only 15% of land titles, which are vital for accessing microloans for production and farm renovations. Tierra Madre members receive an additional premium based on coffee that meets a high-quality standard, helping them obtain legal title to their land and build greater economic independence.
Cultivation
Maragogype is grown in the mountainous regions of north-central Nicaragua, where valleys surrounded by high mountains sit on rich, fertile volcanic soil. Member farms supplying this lot sit in the department of Jinotega at 1,200 meters above sea level and above. Farms average around 5 hectares and are run by smallholder producers who rely largely on family labor, with coffee at the center of the local economy. Aldea Global supports producers with agronomic advisory services, including digital tools through Aldea Tech, soil analysis and programs focused on building climate-resilient, competitive farms.
Harvest & Post-Harvest
Most coffee in the region is produced by smallholder farmers who rely heavily on family labor and traditional farming practices. Cherry is selectively handpicked at peak ripeness during the December to March harvest season. Following harvest, producers process the coffee on their own farms or deliver ripe cherry to local wet mills. Cherry is depulped, fermented to remove mucilage, fully washed with clean water and dried on raised beds or patios.
About Maragogype
Discovered in 1870 near the Brazilian city of Maragogipe, Maragogype is a natural mutation of Typica that’s known for especially large beans. Today, Maragogype is less known than its offspring, Pacamara (where it’s crossed with Pacas). However, Maragogype is still in demand for its large beans and high-quality cup profile.
SHG
Strictly High Grown (SHG) specifies the altitude at which the coffee was grown. A coffee must be grown at 1,200 meters above sea level or higher to be considered SHG. The higher altitude and lower temperatures mean that the coffee fruit matures more slowly, creating a denser bean.
Coffee in Nicaragua
Nicaragua may not be the most famous producer of Central American coffee, but it has great potential. The country is known as the land of ‘los lagos y los volcanes’ (lakes and volcanos) and has many coffee growing ‘pockets’ that few have heard of or experienced. Many producers in the country are experimenting with new varieties and processing methods, making it a specialty origin to watch.
Many coffee producers in Nicaragua today are buoyed by cooperatives that provide a wide array of services, supports and opportunity. As seen in the win of the ‘El Acuerdo de las Tunas’, where 3,000 landless workers won land rights, collective action by farmers can be far more effective at enacting widespread change than the advocacy of individual farmers.
Cooperatives and farmer associations in Nicaragua encompass a large percentage of the country’s coffee producers, and they are taking their destiny in their own hands. By putting great emphasis on quality and by aiming for the international specialty coffee industry, cooperatives and farmers associations are helping their members gain influence and import that will, hopefully, garner enough profit to enable farmers to continue to improve and invest in their farms and their families.
Large and medium-sized (10+ hectare) farms also hold a significant place in Nicaragua’s coffee landscape, as well. Many of these farms have also prioritized social and environmental issues and are working on quality improvements at both cultivation and post-harvest levels.
Farmers, for the most part, will process coffee on their own farms, and the majority of the time coffee is dried on large drying patios under sun.