Horsham Coffee Roaster: Nicaragua, La Bastilla, San Pedro - Yeast Fermentation, Washed

We've manage to find something truly special that features an unusual processing method involving yeast fermentation and some truly amazing flavours not usually found in washed coffees.

This stunning microlot comes from La Bastilla located in Jinotega, Nicaragua. La Bastilla is a large Rainforest Alliance certified farm covering 311 hectares with a total of 160 hectares planted for coffee production. The remaining area of the estate is protected forest with a small area set aside for agriculture as part of their own agriculture school.

The large farm estate is split up into sections. This allows them to produce microlots traceable to different varietals and specific micro farms. This coffee comes from the San Pedro farm covering an area of 4 hectares planted with H3 Hybrid.

To create this stunning coffee the cherry was hand harvested by pickers selecting only the ripest cherry from the H3 Hybrid trees. These trees were created by crossing Caturra with Ethiopian landrance in an effort to increase genetic diversity. It produces very good quality cherry at high altitude.

After harvesting the coffee was pulped to remove fruit and defects and then fermented in sealed bins with a specific strain of yeast (Saccharomyces cerevisiae) made by Lallemand. Yeast is always present in coffee fermentation but using a specific strain in a controlled environment creates a unique flavour characteristic and in this case it tastes like pineapple, rum and coconut! This is truly stunning special fermentation microlot and it taste like no other washed coffee. We scored this a very high 88.5 points and this is one not to be missed.