Limoncillo Red Catuai

Limoncillo is a big one. It spans 171 hectares, with 109 given over to coffee, and it sits at 1,200 metres in the mountains of Matagalpa, close to the city itself. Around a third of the farm is left as native forest, and nine waterfalls run through it. The family use that water to drive a small hydroelectric plant, completed in 2024, which now covers around 35% of the farm's energy needs. More than 60 families live on site full time. Housing, meals, childcare, education and healthcare are provided year round, and wages run about 30% above the local minimum. Come harvest, the farm brings on more than 3,000 extra staff.

The Mierisch story starts with Bruno Mierisch Boettiger, a German geologist who came to Nicaragua in the late 1800s to help build the national railroad. When the government couldn't pay him in full, they offered him land in the Matagalpa mountains instead. That farm went into coffee production around 1908. Limoncillo itself came later, purchased in 1930 and named after the small lemons growing on the property at the time. Five generations on, the farms are still in the family's hands. Dr Erwin Mierisch Buitrago, Bruno's grandson, and Erwin "Wingo" Mierisch Jackman, Bruno's great-great-grandson, run things day to day, with Wingo leading processing experiments at the mill since 2017. Erick Lopez has been with the Mierisch farms for more than 20 years, starting out in the fields and working his way up to head agronomist. It's people like Erick who keep the quality this consistent, harvest after harvest.

The coffee itself is Red Catuai, a Brazilian hybrid from the 1940s, a cross between Mundo Novo and Caturra. It ripens red, unlike its sibling Yellow Catuai, and its compact size means growers can plant it more densely than older varieties like Bourbon or Typica. The name comes from Guarani and means "very good". This lot is fully washed. We'll come back and update this page once cupping's done and we know exactly what's in the cup.