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Mark Moxon's Travel Writing

Nicaragua: From Bean to Cup

The de-pulping plant, where workers are collecting the bean skins to use as fertiliser
The de-pulping plant, where workers are collecting the bean skins to use as fertiliser

I remember visiting Darjeeling during my trip to India back in 1998, not just because of the wonderful views and mountain air (which were excellent and a welcome change from the sweaty plains of the subcontinent), but because it was my first introduction to the way that tea is made. Up to that point I'd been perfectly happy with a good old cup of builder's tea, but as soon as I discovered the delights of Super Fine Tippy Golden Flowery Orange Pekoe, I was hooked. Ever since then I've looked out for and enjoyed good quality tea (though that doesn't mean I can't enjoy a nice cup of PG Tips, of course; I'm no tea snob).

The water that's used to sort and wash the coffee beans is filtered in pits before it is reused
The water that's used to sort and wash the coffee beans is filtered in pits before it is reused

Growing Coffee

Ripe coffee beans are red, though the green ones can also be used
Ripe coffee beans are red, though the green ones can also be used

The little settlement of La Corona, a few miles to the northeast of Matagalpa, is home to a cooperative of small coffee farms, and we bumped our way along dirt tracks to visit one of them and to learn about how coffee is grown. There we met Karla, one of the six children (five daughters and a son) of the farm owners, who themselves had met while picking coffee. Karla talked us through the process of growing coffee, with José interpreting, and it turns out that an awful lot of effort goes in to producing your morning brew, from the bean all the way to the cup.

The coffee plantation looks more like a forest
The coffee plantation looks more like a forest
Karla with the de-pulping machine
Karla with the de-pulping machine
Coffee beans fermenting after being de-pulped
Coffee beans fermenting after being de-pulped

Harvesting the Beans

First quality beans on the left, and second quality beans on the right
First quality beans on the left, and second quality beans on the right

Coffee plants are harvested once a year, though the plants flower two or three times a year. Each flower produces one cherry, and all the cherries have to be picked, even if they aren't good enough to be used, as otherwise the flowers won't regrow. Ideally coffee cherries are picked when they are ripe and red, as these are easiest to process, though cherries can also be picked when they are green; the taste isn't affected, but green cherries have to go through an extra fermentation process before the skin can be removed.

The lowest quality coffee, which is used by the locals
The lowest quality coffee, which is used by the locals
The drying flats, with first quality at the top-right, second quality at the top-left, and third quality at the bottom
The drying flats, with first quality at the top-right, second quality at the top-left, and third quality at the bottom

Dry Roast

The drying flats
The drying flats

After a pleasant lunch on the coffee farm, we drove back through Matagalpa to visit a dry mill. You see these dry mills all along the main roads in this part of Nicaragua; they are huge, flat, open spaces with coffee beans covering every flat surface, as far as the eye can see. The dry mill that we visited, Beneficio Los Piños, has four distinct areas of drying beans: the best quality beans are in the hybrid area, where speciality strains dry on their own concrete patio; then the first quality beans cover a larger concrete area, drying in carefully raked rows directly on the concrete; just below that is the second quality area, where the yellow beans dry on large plastic sheets on concrete patios; and finally there's the lowest quality area, where dark brown piles of damaged beans and dried cherry skins steam away on plastic sheets on grass.

The tasting laboratory
The tasting laboratory
Alexander roasting samples of coffee beans
Alexander roasting samples of coffee beans
Mark smelling the aroma
Smelling the aroma