Nicaragua and Coffee Mathematics

The 32lbs. of Nicaragua Maragogype Las Nubes (the Clouds) from the Andrea Castro farm from the Matagalpa region will arrive tomorrow!

Why is this coffee so special? There are a plethora of reasons. When we cupped the coffee, we tasted notes of banana, peach, chocolate, marzipan, salsa, and much more. In short, it was like manna falling from the heavens. We also bought the entire crop of 38 lbs. The Andrea Costra farm is owned by women; the coffee is picked and sorted by women. The coffee is sun-dried or dry-processed/natural processed which helps bring out the crazy fruity notes . The coffee is strictly high grown (SHG) which means that it is grown above 1200 meters above sea level. It takes high grown coffee a longer time to develop, therefore increasing the tremendous flavor. Strictly high grown coffee beans and extremely fertile soil is a great formula for amazing coffee.

Why were women chosen to be the president, vice-president, secretary, and treasurer of the Las Nubes Cooperative? They were believed to be more prudent! My 38 lbs. was so precious that they did not use machines to sort out the bad coffee beans, they didn't want the good coffee to be damaged.

Why did Andrea Castro have such a small crop of 38 lbs? Some coffee farmers are so poor that they cannot afford fertilizer for their crops. The lack of fertilizer causes farmers to produce lower yields. Andrea Castro works on other farms to help support her family and to help sustain her own farm. The partnership with Gold Mountain Coffee Roasters, Las Nubes, and Chazzano Coffee Roasters is allowing Andrea and other coop members to receive the highest return on their coffee. Chazzano Coffee is hoping to continue to help Andrea and other farmers of this coffee cooperative produce higher yields and bring more money home to their families.

Roasting Mathematics:

Did you know that every pound of coffee that we roast shrinks 20%? I need to roast about 1.2 lbs. of coffee to produce 1lb. of coffee. When I roast 132lbs. of coffee from those huge jute bags, it produces only 106 lbs. of roasted coffee. Therefore, the 32 lbs. of green beans from the Nicaragua Maragogype Las Nubes Andrea Castro farm will produce, after roasting, only 25.6 lbs. of roasted coffee!

Nicaragua Maragogype Las Nubes (Cooperative) Andrea Castro (farm) Matagalpa Region:

$40/lb.

Large cup of this coffee: $4.50

Small cup of this coffee: $3.25

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La Nubes Andrea Costa Nicaragua Maragogype

You know that we have over 40 different single origin coffees available and another 15 blends. I look for the best specialty coffee available. Smart farmers sample different areas of their farms that may cup at a different level than the rest of the crop. Here's the problem: If a farmer has 50 hectares (2.471 acres) of coffee trees and discovers that 1/5th of the crop contains coffee that has a superior flavor profile, should the farmer seek to sell the portion of the crop at a higher price and possibly lower the quality of the entire crop? That's a tough question.

You've enjoyed some of our awesome microlots like Brazil Moreninha Formosa, Honduras Cup of Excellence, Yemen Mocca Sanani, and Honduras Finca Las Canas. We have now secured some incredible microlot coffees from Nicaragua. The first selection is an Andrea Castro Nicaragua Maragogype. They produced only 38 pounds of coffee and picked out (by hand) only the best beans for us! This is an extremely small offering, now, of 32 pounds. (Did you know that 32lbs. of unroasted coffee beans produces only 25.6 lbs. of roasted coffee.)

Maragogype is a large bean that is a mutation of a typica coffee tree. Each of the farms in the Las Nubes (The Clouds) Cooperative is managed by women. How cool is that?

Our 32 lbs. of coffee...

Just wait until you taste this coffee! It will become part of your bucket list.