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Nicaragua Los Planes

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  • TravelerPanama und Nicaragua 2025
    Day 33–40

    Ocotal

    March 10 in Nicaragua ⋅ ☀️ 31 °C

    Nach 2 Jahren bin ich das erste Mal wieder in Ocotal um das Projekt und meine Freunde zu besuchen. Wie die beiden Mitarbeiterinnen von der Deutschen Botschaft in Managua schon angekündigt hatten, es hat sich viel geändert in den letzten Jahren. Man ist vorsichtig mit wem man was redet... Und ich wohne zum ersten Mal im Hotel und nicht wie sonst im Projekt, damit klar gestellt ist, dass ich nur als Tourist hier bin und nicht zum Arbeiten gekommen bin. Und trotzdem kam nach 4 Tagen die Polizei zu Gema, um sich nach mir zu erkundigen und zu fragen was ich hier mache... In die Dörfer bin ich diesmal nicht gefahren, aber die Brigadistas waren fast alle zu einem Treffen nach Ocotal gekommen, ein sehr emotionales Wiedersehen, seit 10 Jahren sind die meisten von Ihnen schon dabei. Jetzt zum Abschluß habe ich noch wirklich schöne touristische Dinge gemacht:durch die Stadt gescglendet, die schöne Kirche und den Park besucht, der schönsten Nicaragua, an den Essenssranden Kleinigkeiten gekauft, heute war ich in Dipilto, dem Hochvelegenen Kaffee Anbaugebiet und habe dort bei McDouglas zu Mittag gegessen und heute Abend ist zum Abschluss meines Besuches noch ein Asado auf der Finca von Javier geplant. Morgen früh um 6.00 müssen wir dann schon los zum Flughafen Managua, es sind mindestens 4 Stunden Fahrt auf der Panamericana.Read more

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  • TravelerNicaragua/Panama
    Day 8

    Cupping

    January 12, 2024 in Nicaragua ⋅ ☀️ 30 °C

    I’m still fairly new to cupping after the virtual one I did a couple months ago. So I was really excited for this day and the chance to cup straight at the producer/dry mill with super fresh coffees.

    The first table were 5 coffees from Nicaragua and 5 African heritage coffees - some of them grown here, some in Africa.

    The second table was 12 coffees from the same farm, a multitude of them the same bean but processed differently.

    The taste variety was mind blowing! It’s hard for non coffee people to understand talk about ripe berries, citrus fruit, tea-like… but even the inexperienced would taste the big variety that was present in the 22 samples.

    We also learned that the fresh fresh coffees contain a bit more acidity than you would get when cupped at the destination. Gloria did an expert job at setting everything up and it was just an anading experience.    Read more

  • TravelerNicaragua/Panama
    Day 8

    Beneficio Secco / Dry Mill Brido Azul

    January 12, 2024 in Nicaragua ⋅ ☀️ 23 °C

    The last part of the coffee process is the Dry Mill, where the coffee gets delivered, weighed, and processed for shipping.

    The Brido Azul just moved to this bigger space in November so there was still construction going on. We flipped the coffee in the African beds and spread it out on the tarp. Of course all of it is labeled by lot and origin to keep traceability.

    Also naturals and washed equipment is kept seperate.    Read more

  • TravelerNicaragua/Panama
    Day 7

    Processing coffee part 2

    January 11, 2024 in Nicaragua ⋅ ☀️ 23 °C

    After our day out and about it was time to continue processing our coffee lot. Since it was a small amount, we hand washed it in a bucket instead of the big washing line.
    Then we brought it to the drying house where we would pack it the next morning to go to the dry mill.Read more

  • TravelerNicaragua/Panama
    Day 7

    Ocotal

    January 11, 2024 in Nicaragua ⋅ ☀️ 31 °C

    Coming down from the farm we stopped at Ocotal to have some lunch. Like half the town we got in line and at the buffet ordered our lunch.

    Most of us did so by pointing … 🤣
    We finished our tour to the city with a stroll to take in the sights and some of us ice cream before heading back for an afternoon of school.Read more

  • TravelerNicaragua/Panama
    Day 7

    Mozonte - Finca de Doña Maria

    January 11, 2024 in Nicaragua ⋅ ⛅ 20 °C

    Since over 80% of Nicaraguas coffee comes from small farms, our trip wouldn’t be complete without seeing those smaller farms too.
    Don Concho and Doña Maria’s farm is a 15 minute through the wilderness and across two rivers hike from a rural road. Remember that! All the coffee they produce needs to be carried down the same way we went up!

    When we arrived Doña Maria was in the kitchen making Tortillas and Don Concho was cleaning their little depulping, drying and washing station. Currently they have 4 pickers that help them - usually it is a family production only!
    Most of their coffee goes to Canada but some also to Sweden to make the famous Raven coffee (one that goes in my list of must tries!).
    Although the living conditions are simple, what stands out is how clean everything is and how well they treat their coffee. A lot of care goes into the production here and the result is one of the best coffees you can drink!

    Also, the place is really beautiful. 🌱🫶🏽⛰️    Read more

  • TravelerNicaragua/Panama
    Day 6

    Processing Coffee

    January 10, 2024 in Nicaragua ⋅ 🌙 20 °C

    The coffee processing usually starts right after the harvest gets picked and weighed. Nowadays there are dozens of methods to do it - we decided on two different ones for our coffee lot:
    Natural (full cherries)
    Honey (depulped beans)

    Both were floated first to seperate the unripe from the ripe cherries. Then the Natural (2 buckets, libras, 60lbs) went straight into a barrel where it will sit for 24 hours.
    The honey went into the demulsifier. For our small lot a hand operated one, that splits the pulp from the beans. Then it is also rested in a barrel for 24 hours.

    Our pickings went from 4.25 libras (52kgs) down to 2 libras each and 1 libra of beans for the depulped version… to be continued.

    The next step is washing- since that won’t happen for a while we skipped ahead and washed a bigger lot of the Santa Rita farm.
    In the washing (see video) the better quality beans as well as leftover pulp get separated due to the density differences (lighter things float on top).

    We also took out faulty beans where the parchment was already damaged.    Read more

  • TravelerNicaragua/Panama
    Day 6

    Picking coffee

    January 10, 2024 in Nicaragua ⋅ ☀️ 25 °C

    The morning started at 6am so we could leave together with the other pickers - ok, we didn’t really leave together as the newbies needed an instruction first.

    In teams of two we got a basket to pick the ripe cherries in and a bag to put the discarded. The goal is to pick overripe or damaged berries as well and not drop them to the floor where they could attract the coffee insect Broca and lead to infecting a whole harvest.

    The green and pinker cherries stay on the branches for another picking in 1-2 weeks. The cherries get picked individually, not striped, as to not damage the stem - because the next seasons cherry will grow from that stem.

    By the end of the pre-breakfast shift we had gotten pretty decent at not picking the wrong stuff - although our speed is still a joke compared to the workers…

    After breakfast we failed to find where we had picked on the first go and walked right past 🙄😂 finally there our skills had definetely improved. 😜 By the end of our shift at 11:00 the ten of us had collected 52 kg or 4.25 measurement buckets. That is about half as a worker 6-15:00 will pick 😂🤣    Read more

  • TravelerNicaragua/Panama
    Day 5

    Finca Santa Rita -planting a coffee tree

    January 9, 2024 in Nicaragua ⋅ ⛅ 25 °C

    Once done at Mil Variedades we toured the slightly larger Finca Santa Rita. If I remember correctly it is about a quarter the size of El Arbol…

    It was exciting to see familiar names of Kaffeemacher coffee flavors: Los Chenes, Doña Marguerita… All of them are areas where coffee trees are planted and the names go back to prior people present on the farm - usually grandparents.

    We made it through more coffee species guesstimating before arriving at the spot where we would each plant a new coffee plant.

    Tim and Adan made sure to measure out the distances with the “A tool” and let us know where to dig. Spade at hand we cleared the soil coverage and dug the holes as deep as they needed to be.

    Of course there was also time for coffee and cuddling with the 4 week old puppy. 🥰🐶

    All in all, a day can’t get any better than that! 🫶🏽

    We headed back for lunch and theory similar to yesterday. Learning about Diseases and fertilization.

    Just as jet lag was hitting the hardest the dog 🐶 Tony Mercelo created a diversion by bringing me a banana 🍌 I needed to peel for him to eat 😂🤣😍

    Tomorrow we start at 6am together with the pickers!!!
    And what we pick we get to process as well 😍😇

    EXCITING!!!    Read more

  • TravelerNicaragua/Panama
    Day 5

    Mil Variedades/Finca Esperanza

    January 9, 2024 in Nicaragua ⋅ ⛅ 20 °C

    After an amazing porridge breakfast I realized I got super lucky: I had left my hiking shoes in the one spot of the finca where the roof leaks. AND we had a little bit of rain last night. What are the chances of that?!?!? Pretty similar to winning the lottery, so remind me to play next chance I get.
    No worries: My trusted Timberlands did not hesitate when called📞 for duty. 🫡 And because I was feeling really fortunate, I made sure to switch the moist socks out as well.

    The first stop today was the small Mil Variedad Finca. It’s at 1500müm (sea level) and you could immediately tell it was cooler up there than the Fincas we were used to.
    After picking the best mandarines 🍊 and eating them straight off the tree we dodged a nest of killer wasps to continue to identify different coffee species.

    Honestly I was just blown away by the view. I think Tim is a bit frustrated with me - at this point I feel like I really can’t tell them apart… 🌳🌲😅😆

    Ok, the bigger ones are “Mara” (save the ending so it could be either Marogogype or Maracaturra) and I feel like the most common one is Paraeinema. 😂🤣

    …and I totally needed to get my notes to finish this post 🙄🤨    Read more

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