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CC accompanies Larry's Beans to Nicaragua
In what is now becoming a January-tradition, Larry’s Beans and Cooperative Coffees organized an early season cupping session at the SolCafé lab – run by CECOCAFEN in Matagalpa. This lower-grown coffee has become one of the primary ingredients (and one of the few identified elements) that makes Larry’s Beans “Secret Espresso # 17” an award-winning recipe year after year.
“This has become one of our most enjoyable and educational cupping sessions of the year,” Larry explains. “For everyone involved – the producers, the SolCafé quality staff and our production team – this shows how quality can be defined by finding the right coffee for the appropriate use.”
Larry’s Beans has led the way within CoopCoffees to demonstrate how matching the appropriate coffees for their specific, ultimate roast profile can buck the traditional concepts of “quality”.
“We have been working with CECOCAFEN for more than four years now in developing common language and understanding about what we look for in a coffee bean to fulfill our espresso roast profile,” Larry explains. “This lower-grown coffee fills the profile perfectly!”
This year’s cupping was no exception. With an array of samples laid out on the table, we slurped, savored and spat our way through lower altitude regions sample lots. Ultimately we were looking to combine small lots of complementary coffees in order to achieve a balanced blend with body, prominent earthy flavors like tobacco and leather, and just a hint of citric tones (a classic Nicaraguan characteristic). The task sounded daunting at the outset. But with a selection of fine coffees to choose from, the lot blending came together quickly and easily. And in the end, we found exactly what we were looking for: a rich and creamy mix with soft fruit and a dark chocolate finish lingering on the tongue.giving us enough time to visit producers from PROCOCER - one of the supplying groups in the northern region of Las Segovias in the following days.
PROCOCER is a community based cooperative – 100 % organic producers – now with 600 members (check out the producer profile). After an informative meeting with their producer Board of Directors and colorful recounting of their history and development, we jumped back into the truck to visit the coffee plot of PROCOCER president Jose Ernesto Canales.
“This was one of the best-planned and maintained coffee plots I’ve ever seen in Nicaragua,” said CoopCoffees producer relations manager Monika Firl. “With a systematic renovation plan and evidence of all the basic pruning, composting and soil conservation practices, Ernesto reveals a great understanding of what his land and his plants need in order to provide stable yields and good quality coffee. With leadership like his, it is no wonder that PROCOCER has such a solid track record and stable growth to date.”
PROCOCER coffee will be a primary component of Cooperative Coffees’ specially blended lots coming from CECOCAFEN.
“We are delighted to have had the opportunity to meet directly with the farmers who grow this fine coffee,“ Larry said. “This is precisely the kind of coop we look to partner with – they are incredibly well organized, smart and show great judgment in their planning and projects.”
In addition to growing and exporting excellent quality organic coffee, PROCOCER is also working hard to expand its local roasted coffee market and is poised to launch a promising Eco-tourism project on a nature reserve located on their cooperatively owned land.
We expect to follow these endeavors closely and will welcome any opportunity to support them as needed and appropriate.
