About This Coffee
Marelic Sevilla's family was originally a grain-producing family from the La Calera community in the Palacaguina Municipality, Department of Madriz, Nicaragua. When she was eight years old, she used to visit the coffee mills with her mother, and during her high school years, she worked part-time sorting coffee to be able to pay for her clothes and school supplies.
In 2000, a company called PRODECOOP arrived in her town, and her father managed to position himself as a security guard there; and she also got a position in the sorting department.
During that period, Marelic met the manager and taster of PRODECOOP, Eduardo Videa, and he was the first person to introduce Marelic to coffee tasting; and her first teacher. It was through him that Marelic developed a passion for coffee.
In 2003 she started a new job at VOLCAFIC in Nicaragua as a Quality control assistant. Then, in 2004, she emigrated to Chiapas, Mexico, to work as the Q.C. Manager at COMPRAS S.A., where she worked with seven organizations of small producers of organic coffee and fair trade, where she spent six years.
2010, she went back to Nicaragua to work for a private company, Peraltacoffees S.A, as a Q.C. Manager and Responsible for Certifications.
2019, Marelic founded her company, y Marelic Coffee, with the mission of providing a quality service in the commercialization of coffee from small unionized and individual producers from the different producing regions of Nicaragua. Her goal is to professionalize long-term relationships with the market, offering and guaranteeing a quality product in exchange for better income/fair prices to improve the quality of life of coffee-producing.
Besides running Marelic Coffee, Marelic is also a small coffee producer. She, and her husband Alex, who is also a cupper, owns two plots of coffee in Los Planes Dipilto N.S, where they also have a cupping lab and a small office where clients and producers can reach out to them.
Cultivation
Traditionally, this coffee has been planted in rows measuring 2x1.5 yards, and due to its tall variety, experiments have been conducted to achieve good yield results. These trials have been ongoing for 7 years, with improved results each year.
Harvest & Post-Harvest
The process of this coffee was carried out through the selection of optimal cherries with Brix degrees measuring between 20 and 23 degrees. After the siphoning process, it was allowed to rest for 24 hours on screens at the farm. It was then transported to a dry mill where it underwent 30 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.