Horsham Coffee Roaster - Nicaragua El Bosque Felix Microlot

Earlier this year our head roaster Matthew visited several farms in Nicaragua. This is one of the micro-lots we selected following visits with the Peralta group of farms.

The municipality of San Fernando is located around 24 kilometres from the region’s capital ‘Ocotal’ and of the 10,000 residents, the vast majority are coffee farmers. This beautiful area is home to the stunning and aptly named ‘Finca El Bosque’ (which translates to ‘the forest’) and has been owned by Julio Peralta since 1991. The farm lies on the mountainous slopes in the Nuevo Segovia region on the border of Honduras, providing spectacular views of the surrounding forests and mountains of Jicaro and San Fernando. The environment is incredibly wild and coffee grows densely amongst shade trees of banana and inga, the potassium provided to the soil by the banana trees is elemental to the nutrition of the coffee on the farm.

El Bosque produces coffee at altitudes of between 1250 to 1560 metres above sea level and has an annual rainfall of approximately 1800 millimetres. These factors, along with Julio’s inherited passion and dedication for growing exceptional coffee, combine to produce lively, bright and complex flavour nuances in the cup. Javier Antonia Mayorquin is the manager of Finca El Bosque and of the 140 hectares that make up El Bosque, only 30 of them are allocated for coffee production. The rest of the land has been set aside for the growth of different varieties of pine and oak, and it is this factor along with a clear commitment to sustainable environmental practice that has resulted in Rainforest Alliance certification for El Bosque. All power on the farm is provided by solar panels and a rainwater harvesting tank which produces hydroelectricity.