Artisan Roast - Bella Aurora - Nicaragua - Washed

Refined, moreish washed process coffee from an award winning family farm in Nicaragua .Delicious caramel flavours lead the way, followed by further flavours of milk chocolate, apple and jasmine.

Since first meeting Joaquin and Maria Lovo around five years ago we’ve always looked to bring their coffee from Bella Aurora over to Scotland. Bella Aurora lies literally a stone throw from Honduras and like much of the Dipilto area the coffee sits under dense, lush shade vegetation. This helps slow the ripening of the coffee down, encouraging improved sweetness and flavour profile once the beans have been roasted and brewed. Joaquin and Maria go the extra mile as well and the farm has a whole handful of third party certifications that represent their very holistic view to coffee farming. This approach has paid dividends over recent years and the family regularly place in the Nicaraguan Cup of Excellence programme, finishing third in 2017.

This particular lot combines the three varieties grown on Bella Aurora - Caturra, Yellow Catuai and Maracaturra – and shows well why the farm gets ongoing recognition for quality in Nicaragua. The Lovo's take real care and attention to their coffee cherry selection during the picking season. After harvesting the de rigueur method of processing in Dipilto is dry fermentation for around sixteen to eighteen hours before being washed and skin dried on the farm's tiny patio. Since the drying area is so small on the farm all coffee is then transferred to Dipilto for final drying and quality assessment.

This years coffee retains the caramel forward flavour profile, with supporting flavours of milk chocolate and citrus fruits. The coffee has more subtle notes of apple vanilla and jasmine which are present on a clean and persistent aftertaste. Underneath the mouthfeel is smooth, creamy and refined, acting as a perfectly balanced counterpoint to the medium intensity acidity which lingers long.

LETTERBOX friendly (single bag): YES