The story
Coffee reached Nicaragua with colonial settlers in the mid-1800s, according to the green-coffee trader Sucafina, and the first trees went into the Pacific plains. Large plantations grew up around Managua and then spread north into Matagalpa, Jinotega and Nueva Segovia, says the importer Cafe Imports. By 1870, the trade publication Perfect Daily Grind reports, coffee was already the country's largest export crop.
The twentieth century was hard on the sector. Cafe Imports points to the long revolutionary period (roughly 1974 to 1990) and to Hurricane Mitch in 1998 as reasons Nicaragua stayed out of the specialty spotlight while its neighbours moved into it. Sucafina adds that many farms were abandoned in those years, and that the global price crisis of the early 2000s left farmers unable to reinvest. In the worst years, it says, harvesting cost more than the coffee would sell for.
Cooperatives became the backbone of the recovery. Land redistributed in the 1980s went to cooperatives, and Fairtrade and organic certification helped many of them survive after 1990, according to Sucafina. Cafe Imports notes that, for its own buying, Nicaragua has mainly been a source of Fair Trade and organic coffee in full containers, though it is now looking for more lots from individual producers.
Today coffee is still one of Nicaragua's most important exports. Sucafina ranks the country 12th in world production, at about 1.87 million 60 kg bags a year, and counts around 40,000 farming families who rely mainly on coffee. Farms are small: Cafe Imports gives an average of 1 to 14 hectares, and an exporter quoted by Perfect Daily Grind puts the typical farm at about 5 hectares.
Almost all the coffee comes from the mountainous north. Perfect Daily Grind names five regions: Jinotega, Matagalpa, Nueva Segovia, Madriz and Estelí. Sucafina groups them a little differently, as Matagalpa, Jinotega and Las Segovias, and describes volcanic soils and humid forest climates. Cafe Imports singles out Nueva Segovia for its higher altitudes and its producers' interest in quality varieties and new processing.
Altitude varies a lot, and no single national range was found in the sources. Cafe Imports mentions areas as low as 800 to 900 metres, while a Nueva Segovia producer quoted by Perfect Daily Grind farms above 1,500 metres.
How it's processed
A coffee bean is the seed of a small fruit, the cherry. After picking, the fruit is removed and the seed is dried. Cafe Imports lists washed coffee as Nicaragua's main method, with other methods only now and then. In a washed coffee the fruit is stripped off and the beans are fermented and rinsed before drying.
Sucafina says most farmers process coffee on their own land and usually dry it in the sun on large patios, helped by the country's low population density and space to spare. Not everyone has that space, though. Perfect Daily Grind reports that many producers lack drying beds or machines, so they sell their coffee still wet to dry mills, where poor handling can lower its value.
Things are changing. Until recently, Sucafina says, the only export mills were large and took big minimum lots, so farmers had to blend their coffee with their neighbours'. Cooperatives and farmer groups are now building their own mills so each farm's coffee can stay separate. Producers are also trying natural coffees, dried with the whole fruit on: a Nueva Segovia farmer told Perfect Daily Grind that his naturals gave a sweet, unusual cup.
The harvest falls in the dry months. Cafe Imports gives October to March; Sucafina gives December to March.
What it tastes like
Perfect Daily Grind describes Nicaraguan coffee in general as having bright, citric acidity, a smooth body, and floral, citrus or chocolate flavours. It stresses that each region tastes different. Coffee from Jinotega, an exporter says, often has mild acidity, floral notes and a hint of yellow fruit, while Nueva Segovia's can be quite unlike it.
Varieties play a part too. The importers list Caturra, Bourbon, Catuaí, Catimor, Maracaturra and Maragogype, and Sucafina and Perfect Daily Grind add Pacamara. Maragogype, a natural mutation of Typica, has very large beans, and World Coffee Research rates its cup quality good to very good in Central America. Maracaturra, a cross of Caturra and Maragogype, likely began in Nicaragua, says World Coffee Research. These big-bean types are one thing that sets some Nicaraguan lots apart.
Because flavour depends so much on the farm, the variety and the processing, the tasting notes on each coffee are a better guide than any country-wide description.