About This Coffee
Isacio Albir purchased Finca El Cipres in 2010. The farm was previously used for cattle pastures but, overtime, Isacio has replanted the land with pine trees and coffee.
Isacio employs 15 full time workers who help upkeep the farm. As he continues to replant the land with coffee trees, Isacio expects his overall yields to more than double.
Cultivation
In addition to the Caturra in this lot, Isacio also cultivates Catuai, Obata, Marsellesa, Maracaturra and Java varieties.
Harvest & Post-Harvest
Cherry is selectively handpicked and delivered to the Cafetos de Segovia mill. Ripe, red cherry is pulped on a drum pulper and laid on a drying patio for the first 2 days. Then, parchment and remaining mucilage is moved to drying beds. Parchment and remaining mucilage is raked frequently to ensure even drying. It takes approximately 3 weeks for parchment to dry.
Once dry. Parchment is rested at the mill’s onsite-warehouse for 1 to 2 months before being transferred to the Cafetos de Segovia dry mill.
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.