Nicaragua - Martha Alvir

An exciting first for us, working with the Alvir Sisters in Nuevo Segonia, sourced by Laura at Minga Coffee for us - an industry friend of ours via a previous green coffee importer, and we've continued to trust her vision for high quality Latin American speciality coffee.

The Alvir Sisters, Martha and Ana have owned Finca Bethania since 2013, when inherited from their father, with their 60 hectares primarily planted with Catimor varietal due to the high-yield in the plant, however, with the sisters taking charge, they've  focused more so on quality and are now working with varietals such as Geisha, Java and the lot we've opted for; Maracaturra. 

Maracaturra is a hybrid varietal of Maragogype (the elephant bean, a mutation of Typica from the town of the same name in Brazil) and Caturra (a prominent worldwide varietal, a dwarf bourbon mutation). These two varietals brought together as a hybrid creates large oversized beans within their cherries, often delivering incredible cup profiles with bright acidity and florality, often winning prizes at their national cup-of-excellence. 

In this case; this microlot is managed by Martha Alvir specifically, with the help of her sister, seven full time staff and sixty seasonal staff, with the sisters actually living away from the farm after the civil war in 1977, but returning every year for their harvest season to cultivate their speciality coffee.

We often overlook washed coffee at our roastery, with often more complex flavour profiles of naturals and fermentation methods piquing our interest, however, washed coffee will often come along and blow us away too, and this is one of those cases, with big notes of mandarin and lemon accentuated with brown sugar sweetness; this is not to be missed. Suitable for all brewing methods, but get the best of it through an Aeropress with a paper filter.

Process: Washed

Location: Finca Bethania, Nuevo Segonia

Altitude: 1200 - 1500 MASL

Flavour Notes: Brown Sugar, Mandarin and Lemon

Roast Level: Medium

Varietal: Maracaturra