Nicaraguan Org. SHB EP Jinotega – Finca El Pastoral – Natural Processed

Description

This is a very fruit forward cup of coffee, winy/floral/fruity/ferment are the predominate tones. A wonderful offering assuming you love fruit forward natural processed coffees.

What’s the best way to support coffee producers? This is exactly the question Juan de Dios Castillo (the family’s agronomist) and his 4 siblings were looking to answer when they created J&M Family Coffee, a privately-owned export company named after their parents Juan and Miriam (J&M). Their first goal was to sell their parents’ coffee directly to international buyers. It was a way to honor their parents who started cultivating coffee during their childhood with the income from the first family business as tailors in the town of Jinotega.

With this first goal completed, Juan de Dios Castillo decided to take the next step and start his own farm called El Pastoral, which has 150 acres of coffee production. During the harvest, the coffee cherries are carefully harvested, sorted and then depulped, fermented, washed and pre-dried at the farm. The partially dried coffee is taken to a nearby location where drying is completed and the coffee is stored and later prepared for export. This is a truly integrated model, in which J&M Family Coffee ensures quality control and traceability from farm to export.

Tasting Notes: A wonderfully complex light to medium roast coffee. Light roasts are lemony and floral upfront which fades to stronger red fruit and balances with a hint of a chocolaty darker tones. Medium roasts clean up the more rustic chocolaty tones which many will like but also reduce the sweetness and fruity factor of the cup, a little fuller bodied with low acidity with good mouthfeel, fruity factor pops out more as the cup cools. Darker roasts get a bit edgy with semi-sweet smoky and roasty notes, finishes with almost a bit of an oaky barrel aged tone.

Roasting Notes: Light to medium roasts are where this bean will shine. Good to get a little past first crack to get a slightly less earthy chocolaty contrast but tasty anywhere in the light to medium ballpark. Higher chaff and a bit uneven roasting, good prep and bean size though, shouldn’t be too challenging to roast in any machine.