EFC | Nicaragua Finca La Bendición
Fruity Profile | Light roast
Tasting Notes: Strawberry, Pink Grapefruit, Molasses
IT ALL STARTS AT THE COFFEE FARM
Fourth generation coffee producer and agronomist engineer, Luis Alberto Balladarez’s processing techniques and experiments are some of the best in the industry, and he’s won multiple national awards in recognition of this. He’s clearly no stranger to producing exceptional coffees, and has distributed each year’s winnings among the workers of his farms, Fincas Un Regalo de Dios, and the farm where this coffee was grown, La Bendición.
Finca La Bedición is located in the Dipilto-Jalapa mountain range in the northeast of the department of Nueva Segovia. In total, the farm is 252 acres, with around 105 acres planted in coffee. Of those 105 acres in coffee, Luis grows the Caturra, Red Catuai, Hybrids, Villa Sarchi, Pacamara, Maracaturra, H-3, Marselleza, SL-34 and Java coffee varietals. The farm has a rich, biodiverse environment of fauna and flora, with an abundance of broad-leaved trees and conifer species. All of this together yields optimal coffee growing conditions.
Luis Alberto processes his coffees at his own mill, Beneficio Las Segovias. He maintains a closed environment for drying coffee, utilizing nets for shade and maintaining quite a low temperature. Luis Alberto and his staff have one main strategy: keeping the conditions of the coffee (both the external environment and inside each bean) as stable as possible during its processing.and for this natural processed coffee, he continuously monitored humidity and temperature both around the drying beds and inside the fruit. In doing so, he was able to develop berry and citric acidity, but with a tropical fruit fragrance and heavier body due to the higher sugar content.
Throughout our importer partner Coffee Quest's collaboration with Luis Alberto, he has always shared that the issue of climate change is an important matter to him. Working in the agricultural sector he can see the effect of climate change on the maturation and fermentation of his plants. That is why he uses organic fertilizers and filters.
TRACEABILITY
PRODUCER
Luis Alberto Balladarez
MILL / WASHING STATION
Beneficio Las Segovias
PROCESSING
Natural
ALTITUDE
1301 meters
DID YOU KNOW
In addition to his award-winning coffees from his own farms, he helps connect farmers to importers and roasters by purchasing their crop locally and offering it to his clients. The fact that he owns and manages his own successful farms make him unique among other mill owners, and is one of the reasons so many other farmers like these trust him to process their coffees.
PRICE TRANSPARENCY
$6.20
Price paid by Driftaway
$5.00
Free on Board price
$4.70
Farm Gate price
$2.05
Fair Trade price per pound
$1.85
Coffee C-Market price per pound
$0.05
Driftaway's World Coffee Research contribution per pound
This coffee travelled 3,652 miles to the Driftaway Coffee roastery in Queens.
Love the coffee? You can share your compliments & tasting observations with the farmers.
WHY DID WE SELECT THIS COFFEE?
There are many reasons to choose this coffee, and there's so much that went into this coffee on the producer side that yielded this fruity and sweet coffee, from healthy trees to unique varieties. In particular, Luis Alberto's processing techniques and experiments truly are some of the best in the industry - and this keeps us coming back excited to roast this coffee year after year.
Wondering what processing is? Check out our coffee processing explanation!
This is a natural processed coffee: in this process, the coffee fruit is dried intact with the seeds still inside, like a raisin. Once fully dried, the fruit is cracked open and the seeds are removed. Natural processed coffee beans have the most contact with fruit sugars so therefore retain the most fruit-like flavors, and because of the extra fermentation of sugars found in the fruit pulp, natural coffees tend to be sweeter than their washed and honey counterparts.
AVERAGE CUPPING SCORE
87.25
/100
87.25
SCAA Cupping Score
15 x 69 kg
Bags purchased
4 years
Length of producer relationship
100% (in 2022)
Transparent coffees purchased
HOW DID WE ROAST THIS COFFEE?
This coffee is being roasted by Ian T. from September 10 to October 4 in Brooklyn. We use the Loring Kestrel roaster for this profile. We have strict guidelines for each of the coffee profiles, and this roast has to pass the development time ratio test as measured in real-time by the roasting software, Cropster. Once it does, it is approved for production.
QUALITY CONTROL
We perform Quality Control via a process of coffee tasting called cupping on all of our production roasts once a week at our roastery in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. Each cupping is conducted by James M. and Ian T. using standard equipment, and is logged by our Q-certified cupper Ian T. All coffees are evaluated on a scoring scale of 0 to 3.
- 3.0 = exceptional roast - exceeds expectations
- 2.5 = on par with profile - matches expectations
- 2.0 = good roast, but 1 or 2 elements could be improved - needs improvement
- 1.5 or lower = failed - do not ship
PRODUCTION AND SHIPPING
Less than 24 hours after roasting, we bag your coffee in our production facility in Greenpoint, Brooklyn. Our production team is led by Anthony and Torie, and supported by a rotating cast of local artists, musicians and independent professionals.
AT YOUR HOME
Brew this coffee with your favorite home brewer and enjoy the taste of incredible coffee! Here are a few tips on how to make the best coffee on each brewer.
View other posts about how to make better coffee at home on our blog Coffeecademy.
