Description
New crop has picked up some delays, first a hurricane, now shipping container issues. Anticipated around end of May to early June at the moment, we picked up a couple more bags of our favorite lots of the year at a lovely deal to bridge the gap.
Nicaraguan Selva Negra coffee is cultivated in the most ecologically sustainable and socially responsible way possible. Learn more by reading our Selva Negra Grower Profile.
Selva Negra put together a very special blend this year. The best of the best from the washed processed crop. They blended together multiple strains to create a very unique and super clean lot. Although it did not win the COE, it is a very special, high rated cup that is bound to impress, for far less money than a COE winner.
Selva Negra’s history is in many ways the history of the coffee in Nicaragua altogether. In the 1880’s the Nicaraguan government invited young German immigrants to come and settle in Nicaragua in order to promote coffee growing in the northern highlands. Many accepted the offer, thus forming the main coffee plantations of the country; some estates bear names of their motherlands. Selva Negra means Black Forest, and the coffee estate is called La Hammonia, Latin for Hamburg. Located approximately 4,000 ft. above sea level, La Hammonia has been producing fine old style Arabica coffee for over 100 years. Eddy Kühl & Mausi Kühl-Hayn, the farm’s proprietors are descendants of two of these original German immigrants – Alberto Vogl and Klaus Kühl.
Tasting Notes:
A very nice, super clean and fresh batch of their traditional farm aggregate. A little hint of citrus floral upfront balanced with nice complex malty tones. Light roasts have a bit more citric fruitiness with just a hint of malty factor. Our favorite and a great everyday drinker was at a medium roast, builds more of a chuggable cup with a sweet edge. Turns much stronger into the darker roasts but equally as tasty, fuller bodied with strong malty and smoky tones but still retains that sweeter edge to it.
Roasting Notes:
Easy to roast, great prep on the beans and roasts pretty even. We would shoot for a medium roast at first and go lighter or darker to your preference. Medium to low chaff. Setup helps smooth out the cup especially if shooting for a pretty light roast. Medium to dark roasts were great even 12 hours after roasting.
Selva Negra Estate Coffee is grown at a high altitude in a shaded environment. This allows the bean to have a slow development cycle which instills an intense and fulfilling flavor to each bean. The coffee is not only 100% Arabica, but more importantly it is mostly Bourbon and Typica strains (which produce higher quality beans than other varieties of coffee trees). The region of Matagalpa, Nicaragua is mountainous with excellent volcanic soil producing exceptional beans. Finally, the coffee is prepared using an environmentally friendly washing process, which gives the coffee still one more unique quality enhancing aspect.
Selva Negra means Black Forest – beyond the coffee trees below you can see why.
A great example of a good looking production tree and how the fruit ripens at different times – this is what makes hand picking so necessary for good coffee.
After a hard day of picking…
Finally the reception – every afternoon of picking all the workers gather for the cherry reception – this is where the work for the day will be logged and the start of the processing for the cherry. Normally workers get paid by volume but many farms bonus on quality – too many damaged/under-ripe beans in the pick is bad for everyone
gary.knigge (verified owner) –
I roasted this one city to city+. It has a nice flavor, but neither floral nor nutty for me at this roast. Some chocolate notes and a pleasant cup. In roasting it took a more heat than most beans to get through drying phase and into 1st crack.