Nicaragua Himalaya - full and sweet...
The Nicaragua Himalaya
We did it again! After the La Sultana, St Lucia, San Antonio, Tierra Linda and the Coop Padilla Barend and I managed to get hold of another Nicaraguan beauty through the internet auction of the Cup of Excellence. Barend who was calculating and bidding behind his laptop and I was reporting to Barend while I was cupping.
Cup of Excellence
For all the people who never read about of the Cup of Excellence before this is a short explanation of what it stands for. The Cup of Excellence is a non-profit organization which gives coffee farmers the chance to sell their coffee through an internet auction to roasters throughout the whole world. First all the coffees are cupped by a national jury and afterwards by an international jury. The scores given by this jury are placed on the internet and that is when roasters can start bidding on their favorite plantation. The auction makes sure that the farmers will receive more money for their coffee compared to when they sell their coffee through conventional ways. The coffee roasters are put in contact with plantations which they otherwise would not have known about. And you the coffee drinker are certain that you are drinking absolute great quality coffee and you can be sure that the farmer has received a fair price for his coffee. That is great knowledge in this area of overwhelming amounts of "Fair trade" products.
Mauricio Arturo Ortez Beltran
This year the lot comes from the Himalaya plantation of Mauricio Arturo Ortez Beltran out of the region of Neuvo Segovia, which is in the North-East of Nicaragua near the border of Honduras. The Beltran family has been devoted to coffee for three generations long and the father of Maurice helped him buy this plantation in 1980. The plantation is situated 1350 meters above sea level and has got a surface of 22 hectare (which is about 30 soccer fields). The varieties which grow there are: Caturra, Catuai and Bourbon. The coffee received a score of 86.26 on the cupping table and ended on the 12th place. Some of the taste descriptions by the jury were: brown sugar, sugar cane, caramel, round, soft, elegant and a bright aftertaste. For the people who have known the Cup of Excellence out of Nicaragua for the last couple of years, it is a typical Nicaraguan coffee: full and sweet.
Optimal selected, optimal taste
For me as a coffee roaster it is a great pleasure to be able to roast a Cup of Excellence coffee. The entries are very carefully selected meaning that the beans are all the same size and weight. In order to archive this the farmers use strainers and machines which they use to measure the size and the density of the bean. The best (the largest and heaviest) quality beans are kept separately and are used for the Cup of Excellence auction. A smaller or lighter bean is finished much quicker and will burn while the larger and heavier bean is not done yet. By making a good selection on the plantation the beans will roast equally and this gives you an optimal flavor. A homage to the farmer! The Nicaragua Himalaya costs € 7.25 and is only available in sealed packages of 250 grams, in which the freshness will stay optimal.
Kees Kraakman -
Coffee roaster
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For more information please visit:
www.cupofexcellence.org
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