Finca San Ramón sits within the Dipilto mountain range, a nature reserve in the Nueva Segovia region of northern Nicaragua, close to the Honduran border. Owner Donald Efrain Roque has worked with coffee all his life as a third generation coffee producer - both his grandfather and father were dedicated to coffee - and over time, he acquired a very special affection and passion for it. Purchasing the farm in the early 1990s, he named it San Ramón to honor his father, Ramón Roque. In the years since buying the land, the farm has grown larger as he acquired more adjoining plots, and is still at its core a family business. According to Donald Efrain, it’s “a family effort since my family is involved in the business 100% in all aspects”.

Donald has been working with Caravela for five years now and his point of view on coffee has completely changed since he started producing specialty coffee. Now he is consistently seeking to improve and to become a better farmer. For him, the biggest challenge to convert his farm from conventional coffee to specialty coffee was having to train and educate his workers to change their harvesting and processing practices. He strongly believes in the potential of specialty coffee in Dipilto, Nueva Segovia and he recommends every single farmer in the region to focus solely on producing a high-quality product. As he says, “The farm conditions such as height, vegetation, as well as shade grown coffee care, with organic fertilizer and wet mill management are all factors that help the coffee quality.”

In 2006, Donald Efrain found out about the Cup of Excellence auction and coffee competition in Nicaragua and decided to participate, just to see how much potential his coffee had. Placing with the top 25 winners at #15, he became more motivated than ever to continue improving the quality of his coffee, and also, he felt it was “a good opportunity to show how there is coffee quality in the area of Dipilto, Nueva Segovia, Nicaragua”.