Back in 2016, I visited my first coffee farm in the rural mountains of Nicaragua. It was a one hour drive north of Matagalpa and most of the drive was on a dirt road rolling up and over hills and valleys. About halfway through, I convinced my host and coffee producer, Ben with Gold Mountain Coffee Growers, to let me ride in the back of the truck where I could get a panoramic view of the passing farmland and people who lived in the area.
As the road narrowed to less and less gravel, Ben points up at a single power line. “We installed this a while back for Santos and his family. The additional profits he made on the better production of his coffee helped pay for power to his house.”
Once we reached the farm and house, we were greeted immediately by the smiling face of Don Santos and his wife Teresa. Situated on their property was a simple wet mill, a green house, and their house. The farm itself produces about 5700 pounds of coffee a year and has been passed down through the family for generations.
Santos’ farm offers a few different varietals of coffee. For this harvest season, he separated out a couple of them for us to experience and share. Both the Red and Yellow Catuai are the two varetials we decided to get in our roasters.
Think of coffee shrub varietals like apples. Different types of apples taste and look different based on the genetics of the tree of which it is grown. There can be many other factors for flavors here but lets stick to the simplicity of a single Varietal for now.
The Yellow Catuai is unique in the fact that it is picked, in its ripest form, when it is yellow in color. The Red Catuai is picked, in its ripest form, in the traditional, deep scarlet red color.Yellow Catuai coffee grows differently by producing larger cherries. These cherries are more sensitive to heavier rainfall. Red Catuai Coffee is more resistant to heavy rainfall.
From there, traditional washing, milling, and drying methods took place and were held separately through logistics before it arrived at our doorstep.
Now that we are featuring the two varietals during the month of October and November, you can experience the flavor differences for yourself. The Yellow Catuai coffee will offer a full and round body, a heavy and earthy sweetness, and a heavy creamy chocolate. There will be subtle raw cacao flavor notes; also translated as an earthiness. The Red Catuai coffee will offer a more creamy, orange-like, delicate sweetness with a lemon acidity. Less harsh earthy notes may be more of a crowd pleaser but we will leave that up to your own interpretation!
I not only wanted to introduce some of these educational pieces with our coffee tribe, but also I wanted to use it as an entry to tell the story of Santos and Teresa.
The most important part of their story, through this coffee feature project, we are able to empower the family and their craft coffee production with the help of Gold Mountain Coffee Growers. Higher premiums are paid and lifestyles at origin are improved. The story of Santos and Teresa’s family having power at their house, for the first time ever, was enough to inspire other social economic projects for the future. Since our visit, Santos opened his first bank account and their daughter is on track be the first family member to graduate from college.
There are many other stories across the hills of Nicaragua of social and economic improvements and environmental sustainably through improved coffee production. Thanks to Ben and Gold Mountain Coffee for their hard work and vision in making this world a better place.Follow them digitally here www.goldmountaincoffeeegrowers.com
And on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram – @goldmtncoffee
Try our Gold Mountain Coffee Micro-lot collection here https://www.raleighcoffeecompany.com/buy/
Head to BREW in Seaboard Station in Raleigh and BREW in Cary to try these coffees brewed as drip or espresso.