About This Coffee
Marilec Sevilla's family originally farmed grains in La Calera, Palacaguina Municipality, Madriz Department, Nicaragua. At eight, she explored coffee mills with her mother, later sorting coffee part-time during high school to cover expenses.
In 2000, PRODECOOP arrived in her town, with her father and herself joining as a security guard and sorter, respectively. During this period, she met Eduardo Videa, her first mentor and PRODECOOP's manager and taster, igniting her passion for coffee.
In 2003, she began work as a Quality Control Assistant at VOLCAFIC in Nicaragua. In 2004, she moved to Chiapas, Mexico, serving as QC Manager at COMPRAS S.A. for six years, collaborating with seven small producer organizations in organic and fair trade coffee.
In 2010, she returned to Nicaragua, working for Peraltacoffees S.A as QC Manager and Certification Lead.
In 2019, Marelic established her company, Marelic Coffee, dedicated to sourcing high-quality coffee from small unionized and individual producers across Nicaragua. Her mission is to foster professional, long-term relationships in the market, ensuring quality products and fair prices to enhance the livelihoods of coffee producers.
Alongside her role at Marelic Coffee, Marelic, along with her husband Alex, a fellow cupper, owns two coffee plots in Los Planes Dipilto N.S. They also operate a cupping lab and a small office to engage with clients and producers.
Cultivation
Marilec Sevilla's coffee comes from La Calera, Palacaguina Municipality, Madriz Department, Nicaragua. The coffee cherries are carefully selected, with Brix degrees between 20 and 23, ensuring optimal quality.
Harvest & Post-Harvest
Coffee cherries, selected at the optimal point with 20 degrees Brix, are placed in barrels and a certain amount of CO2 is injected anaerobically. The goal of this process is to create an environment where carbon dioxide is readily available, resulting in coffees with brighter and wine-like notes. This method, borrowed from wine production, comes with higher costs, a challenge for many producers. After a 48-hour anaerobic fermentation on the farm in cherry form, the coffee is depulped and then transported to the dry mill for 13 to 18 days of drying under shade.
Sustainable Harvest
Sustainable Harvest® is a specialty coffee trader focusing primarily on bringing coffees to market that are sourced from smallholder farmer cooperatives in the supply chain such as indigenous communities, women groups and the next generation of coffee farmers.
Their sourcing model is built on transparency, traceability and direct relationships between quality-minded coffee roasters and best-in-class coffee producers. Sustainable Harvest® has an on-site presence at origin with staff in Mexico, Colombia, Guatemala, Costa Rica and Peru. Each office coordinates their supply including quality management, supplier relationships, source development, logistics, training and capacity building.
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.