Artisan Roast - Cerro De Jesus - Nicaragua

Maracaturra is a cultivar that has a direct lineage to the Maragogype, are both immediately recognisable and distinctive in their massive size. That they deliver subtle, refined coffees and need tender care and coaxing in the coffee roaster to bring out their very best can be a little confusing. Yields are typically lower with these plants than other cultivars so it's an uncommon variety to be found globally. One pocket of the coffee growing world it still holds favour with farmers is in the high forested hills of Nicaragua's border with Honduras, home to Cerro de Jesus.

Cerro De Jesus is a relatively big farm for the area at around 280 hectares and mostly grows catuai, caturra, bourbon and Pacamara. It also has a little maracaturra plot which lies at 1300m at sea level ,from which this micro-lot is sourced.

Before processing the coffee cherry selection is meticulous. With a relatively stable climate in Nueva Segovia during harvesting brix readings of the sugar content provide a reliable indicator of true ripeness before picking. Before drying cherries whole as a natural proccessed lot further sorting is then carried out to ensure that the cherries will dry consistently over the next fifteen days. The results are delicious, sweet and an excellent example of a natural processed coffee that displays the true fruit like character of the coffee cherry whilst still allowing variety and terroir characteristics to be tasted.

On brewing this coffee strawberry and raspberry are flavours that are present across both filter and areopress methods. The filter then balances these fruits with delicious caramel and fudge backnotes, while with the aeropress a licorice lace like flavour and milk chocolate come through on the finish. All brew methods have a rolling creamy mouthfeel with a delicate citrus to apple like acidity.