Nicaragua Los Pocitos Estate

Origin: Nicaragua
Estate: Los Pocitos
Estate Size: 45 Hectares
Owner: Saxony Coffee Estates
Region: Jinotega
Altitude: 950 masl
Varietal: Sarchimor
Processing: Fully Washed
Cupping Score: 84+
Tasting Notes: Almond, Milk Chocolate, Vanilla Pod & Ripe Plum

Known as the land of lakes and volcanoes within Central America, Nicaragua is a pocket for high quality coffee thanks to its rich soils and various microclimates. Coffee arrived in the 1800s with Spanish colonialists, first planted on the mesas of the Pacific plains. Today, coffee has spread to three main production areas: Las Segovias, Matagalpa, and Jinotega; characterised by fertile, volcanic soils and lush vegetation. In the 20th century, due to political unrest and civil war, coffee farms were abandoned. And with Hurricane Mitch in 1998, much of the coffee infrastructure was destroyed, leaving a vulnerable coffee industry. Nicaragua is considered to be the second poorest country in the western hemisphere, so the restoration of coffee was important for the economy and small producers. Cooperatives helped rebuild the coffee industry, providing producers with access to markets, stable incomes, and resources to efficiently produce coffee. CAFENICA (The Nicaraguan Association of Smallholder Coffee Cooperatives) was created to earn land back for producers and educate them about post-harvest processing methods.
Today, coffee production supports the livelihoods of nearly 45,000 families in Nicaragua, representing 8% of the country’s exports. Most of these producers are smallholders, growing coffee on small plots of land whilst also growing other cash crops such as corn and beans. A significant portion of coffee production, nearly 95%, is grown under a shade of native and exotic tree species. This means that Nicaraguan coffee grows in harmony with the surrounding ecosystems and helps promote biodiversity and soil health. This is vital considering the country is heavily deforested – the 108,000 hectares of coffee farms helps preserve the intact forests and stores carbon in the soil.
This coffee comes from the Saxony Estate Coffee organisation, and their farm named Finca Los Pocitos. The farm is situated at 950 meters above sea level in the Jinotega region surrounded by native forests and wildlife preserves. The coffee grows with cocoa and other shady trees such as fruit and timber trees, to create an agroforestry system. This helps the coffee obtain nutrients naturally and promotes biodiversity of the area.
This farm teems with wildlife as 17% of it is preserved and part of the Peñas Blancas Nature Reserve. The farm is working to improve drinking water and living conditions for the surrounding Abisinia community.
During the harvest, the cherries are carefully handpicked when fully ripe and submerged in water to remove floating, or lower quality coffee. The cherries are then pulped, the exterior fruit being removed, and sent to the fermentation stage. Here, the coffee soaks for 17 hours to initiate the breakdown of the remaining sticky mucilage. The coffee is then washed in a channel of water to clean off any remaining mucilage or foreign matter. Once cleaned, the coffee is dried until the ideal moisture content is reached.

Finca Los Pocitos cares for the environment and the surrounding community – constantly working to improve both whilst producing excellent quality coffee. The water used for processing is carefully filtered and placed in an oxidation lagoon before being reintroduced into the local water systems.

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.