Your coffee today hails from the Matagalpa region of Nicaragua, grown and processed for us by our good friends the Mierisch family. This is one of our longest continuing producer relationships as we’ve been buying coffee from their farm Finca Limoncillo since 2007, and we foresee that continuing for many years yet. This time round, we’ll be sharing a superb Cold Fermented Natural Yellow Pacamara.
The very first of the Mierisch farms was founded in 1895 by German émigré Ernst Bruno Mierisch Boettiger. He was compensated by the Nicaraguan government for his engineering work on the construction of the pacific railroad between Masaya and Diriamba with a parcel of land - a goldmine and a farm he named “Sajonia” (the Spanish spelling of his home region back in Germany, Saxony). In 1908 he planted his first coffee tree, today Fincas Mierisch have 9 coffee farms in Nicaragua and 3 in Honduras. Over 100 years later the family business is now run by his grandson, Dr. Erwin Mierisch Buitrago (3rd generation), and great-great-grandson, Erwin “Wingo” Mierisch Jackman (5th generation).
Wingo has been involved with the farms since 2017, contributing to everything from post-harvest processing, to roasting, cupping, and green coffee sales. His passion for innovation and research has led him to head development of new post-harvesting processing methods at the mill, and fine-tuning QC lab protocols to increase quality and consistency. With Wingo’s input, the team at the Don Esteban mill have heavily invested in experimentation with processing coffee.
This coffee has undergone an unusual two-part processing method, a unique twist on the typical Natural style. The first tweak is that it’s anaerobic. This means the coffee cherries were deposited into bags inside metal barrels and topped up with water, the bags are then sealed with a one-way breather valve. This plastic tube lets fermentation gases out through a water trap and prevents air from entering, displacing any air remaining when the bag was closed to create an anaerobic (without air) environment around the cherries.
The second part of the processing innovation here is the low temperature environment. The anaerobic barrels are kept in a cold room (essentially a large walk-in refrigerator a few degrees above zero) which helps to maintain a consistent cool temperature. The progress of the enzymatic and microbial processes (and the kind of chemicals they create) is, in part, controlled by temperature. Warmer fermentation works faster to break down sugars because your yeasts and bacteria can really go for it and metabolise very vigorously. Tempering these with a cold environment helps to give you a super clean tasting coffee, the more boozy alcoholic-type flavours that can arise with Natural processing don’t come through. This allows you to push the fermentation level further, without creating any harsh or astringent qualities that you might get if you pushed it that far at a higher temperature.
On his most recent trip to Nicaragua, as always Roland cupped prospective lots at the Don Esteban mill with Wingo and the QC team. There were lots of different coffees on the table, but when specifically looking for a selection for this year’s Secret Stash he asked them to show him some interesting stuff that’s tasting really good - small amounts of something special that will fit the bill for Stash. A couple of the coffees were cold fermented and really did stand out for him as being better than the rest, showcasing some really clean but punchy flavours that we love. The clincher was when he was told this particular lot was a Yellow Pacamara, which really surprised him.
We’ve had some Yellow Pacamara Naturals over the years and they've sometimes been slightly controversial. They often have a distinctly hoppy herbal character that divides opinions. Roland had no idea that this coffee was a Yellow Pacamara until the big reveal as he didn’t find that particular flavour profile on the table, it’s not noticeable at all. The flavours we do get from this coffee are very in line with the more popular side of Yellow Pacamaras - papaya, lime, tinned pineapple, ripe bananas - very focussed on yellow fruits and citrus. The absence of that hoppy Yellow Pacamara-y kind of flavour is what really made this lot stand out as an excellent example of what the varietal is capable of when you process it just so.
Starting with tinned pineapple and ripe bananas, this coffee is full of sweet yellow fruits. An edge of papaya and lime on the aftertaste rounds out this clean but punchy tropical fruit bomb.
- Country: Nicaragua
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Region: Matagalpa
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Municipality: Yasica Norte
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Farm: Limoncillo
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Producers: The Mierisch Family
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Farm size: 171 hectares
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Coffee growing area: 109 hectares
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Protected rainforest: 54 hectares
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Varietal: Yellow Pacamara
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Process: Cold Fermented Natural
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Elevation: 1200 m.a.s.l
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Harvest months: October - February
- Diurnal temperature cycle: Average high 25°C, low 17°C