Las Segovias
Beneficio Las Segovias is a very organized Mill and well known in the area of Nueva Segovia. It is located on the northern border of Nicaragua, in the city of Ocotal. Its name comes from the region itself, ie. Nueva Segovia. This region is recently distinguishing itself for producing some of the very finest coffees in the country and Las Segovias is clearly one of the best examples. Las Segovias sits at an elevation between 1300 and 1800 m.a.s.l and is run by Luis Alberto Balladarez and his son, who was also a national judge at The Cup of Excellence. Don Luis is a mill owner, coffee farmer, and manager of several different coffee farms. He is no stranger to producing exceptional quality coffee. For him, coffee is a family tradition, but his insatiable curiosity and fierce passion brought him to focus on specialty coffee and lead to great success. It’s exactly his expertise that makes many other farmers entrust him to process their coffee each year.
Obsessed
Coffee is one of the most important products for export in Nicaragua and you can find a range of flavours in coffee: typically quite complex, fruity flavour and clean acidity. The secret of Beneficio Las Segovias is the extreme care for the coffee processing. Luis Alberto is obsessed with coffee quality and with every detail in each step, from the harvest to the process into the dry mill to the cupping lab. Only by doing this way, he will be able to deliver excellent and consistent cups. The main difference with the other farms are a closed environment where to dry coffee, shade nets and a quite low temperature. Luis Alberto and his staff have one main strategy: keeping as stable as possible the conditions of the coffee during its processing.
About this coffee
Cupping score: 87.50
Processing station: Un Regalos de Dios
Producer: Luis Balladares
Region: Nueva Segovia
Altitude: 1350 – 1700 MASL
Variety: java
Processing: natural
Variety
High quality in Central America. Tolerant to major diseases, with low fertilizer requirement. Java’s quality potential at high altitudes has been recognized. The first Central American country to officially recognize Java was Panama in 2016.It represents an interesting alternative to the Geisha, which high cup quality but is more resilient for small farmers with better tolerance of coffee leaf rust and CBD.
Natural
Natural sundried, also called “natural process” or “dry process,” means drying coffee cherries whole without the intervention of water or machines to remove any of the fruit. Prior to drying, the cherries are picked, floated in water, and sorted to remove any under-ripe or overripe fruit.
