EL
PEROTE

SINGLE FARM

〰️

SINGLE FARM 〰️

Producer Mario González

Farm name El Perote

Region Jinotega

Altitude 1300 – 1400 masl

Processing Carbonic Maceration Natural

Species Arabica

Variety(ies) Catuai, Catimor

Harvest December - March

EL PEROTE

Finca El Perote is situated in Dipilto, in the Nueva Segovia a department of Nicaragua, close to the Honduras border. El Perote shares its name with the names given to the microregion where it’s located. The farm is nestled within lush forested hills, culminating to 1600 masl.

His owner, Mario Gonzales is a first generation coffee farmer. After years managing pine wood farms, him and his family turned to coffee in 2006 after a change in the Nicaraguan legislation around logging operations.

Today, he owns three different farms in the department of Nueva Segovia, including Los Suyates that we have also imported this year. The farms are managed withing the family and Jairo, mario’s son-in-lawn, had a major role defining the model of the farm. As a qualified agronomist, he has helped design and manage the farm from scratch.

El Perote is a small 7 hecatres farm growing catuai and catimor under the shade of pines and other native species.

the process

Borrowed from the world of wine, carbonic maceration allows coffee to develop more fruity notes and brings body, complexity and richness to the cup.

First, the cherries ferment in sealed barils placed in a temperature-controlled room (we want to maintain cool temperatures to avoid the development of unwanted bacteria).
The maceration produces Co2 and drives oxygen out of the baril. This environment allows the fermentation to take place inside bean. We talk about an inside-out fermentation. (As opposed to fermentation which takes place from the outside in when we add yeast or other external products to the coffee such as fruit, for example.)
This step extends over several days until a gelatinous and rich texture is obtained.
immediately out of the barils, the cherries are first placed on suspended beds inside the cold rooms to avoid the development further uncontrolled fermentation.
Once the cherries reach a lower humidity level, they finish drying on African beds outside.
The Cherries harvested at El Perote are processed at Los Suyates, the second farm owned by Mario. All his processes are centralized there.

bridazul Project

Bridazul is a holistic project born in 2019 and created by Claudia Lovo and Tim Willems. It aims to support producers that desire to turn to the specialty market while taking action to reduce climate change impacts on the coffee production.

Claudia is Nicaraguan, and owner of El Arbol, the farm where the carbonic maceration was developed in the early 2010s. Tim is Belgian, worked in roasteries and coffee shops in Europe before falling in love with Nicaragua, and not only… Together, they founded Bridazul to share know-how across producers and give access to the necessary infrastructure to ferment and process specialty coffees. Bridazul is also a place where future of coffee in Nicaragua is often discussed.

Indeed, Nicaragua is one of the most affected countries by climate change, and coffee crops are among the ones that suffer the most. In a second plan, the project will aims to create a group of producers who transition towards complementary crops, therefore producing and depending less on coffee alone. This will also favor more diversity and incentive a more balanced way of doing agriculture.

Bridazul brings together around fifty producers with small and medium-sized farms (less than 10 hectares on average)