English
Čeština
PRODUCER
Finca Bethania was established in 1991 in the Nuova Segovia region near the town of Ocotal in the northern part of the country. On a 42-hectare plot, sisters Ana and Martha cultivate varieties such as caturra, maracaturra, catuaí, catimor, and java. They grow all their coffee using environmentally friendly methods, following RFA (Rainforest Alliance) standards, and in 2020, they built a greenhouse for the cultivation of experimental lots and more delicate coffee varieties.
The journey to coffee production, however, was rocky. The revolution in 1975-1979 affected the entire country, but the border region with Honduras was hit the hardest. Ana and Martha’s family fled to the USA, and after six years, they returned to find that the government had confiscated all their property. The only thing they got back was their house.
Until 2015, the family sold their cherries to a local processor, but due to long-term dissatisfaction with the purchase price per kilogram, the sisters decided to build their own processing station in the town of Ocotal. This step allowed them to improve the quality of processing and enabled them to sort coffee by lots (based on harvest days or parts of farms), increasing the selling price of coffee.
The newly built processing station, Cafetos de Segovia, serves not only for processing coffee from Bethania but also for 47 neighboring growers’ farms. During the busiest harvest season, 70 people work at the processing station, capable of processing and drying 3000 quintals of coffee at once (1 quintal = 46 kg).
PROCESSING
Approximately 80% of the coffee here is processed by the washed method, a small portion by the natural (dry) method, and in recent years, they have started experimenting with the anaerobic method, which you can taste with this coffee. Most farmers deliver coffee already depulped in the wet parchment. However, some transport whole cherries, giving Cafetos de Segovia control over the entire processing process.
After depulping, the coffee is spread out on a concrete patio covered with black mesh to prevent the beans from lying directly on the concrete. Drying starts for 5 – 6 days in direct sunlight and is then moved to the shade. Workers at the processing station turn the coffee every 3 – 4 hours because the sun is very strong at this low altitude (less than 900 meters), which could cause the parchment (outer shell) to crack, leading to potential flavor defects.
VARIETY
From Finca Bethania, we have selected Maracaturra for you, which is a cross between the Caturra and Maragogype varieties. This coffee tree variety is known for its large beans and leaves. The Caturra lineage brings excellent flavor and production characteristics.
Maracaturra first appeared in the 19th century in Brazil, where it is the most widespread along with Nicaragua and El Salvador.
