Los
altiplanEs

SINGLE FARM

〰️

SINGLE FARM 〰️

Producer Ricardo Cuadra

Farm name Los Altiplanos

Region Jinotega

Altitude 1100 – 1300 masl

Processing Washed

Species Arabica

Variety(ies) Java

Harvest December - March

Los AltiplanEs

Ricardo Cuadra’s story with coffee starts long before he was born. His family has been growing coffee for over a century. He incarnates the 3d generation producing coffee in his family farm. However, in the 2006, he was given the opportunity to buys Los Altiplanes, a farm that exists since 1930 and has a fascinating story involving a Scottish farmer, the Sandinistas and the revolución and government confiscation. But we’ll leave this ‘telenovela’ for another time…

Los Altiplanes is a 140 ha farm, with 75 ha of coffee and 30 ha of protected forest. Don Ricardo was charmed by the beauty of the farm and its canopy of trees. This beautiful place is located in the mountains of the Dantlí El Diablo national reserve on a volcanic and loamy soils. The farm produces Pacamara, Java, Paraneima, Marsellesa, Catuai and Catimor.

Here, we have the Java lot. The Java cultivar is tall with bronze tipped leaves, long pointed seeds, and high cup quality potential. It is a varietal selection from an Ethiopian landrace population called "Abysinia" introduced to the island of Java by the Dutch in the early 19th century. In the mid-20th century, it was taken to Cameroon and after 20 years of selection it made it to Central America.

Don Ricardo pays strong attention to the environment of the farm. The shade trees are composed by Guaba, trees and many other fruit trees. The Guava not only provides shade for the coffee, but also aids with the fixation of Nitrogen, and provides a renewable source of energy in the form of firewood. Besides coffee, he also grows wheat, beans, corn and several vegetables and banana. Part of the crop is used to feed his family and the workers on the farm.

the process

For this washed coffee, the cherries are carefully selected by hand once they are red and ripe. After that, they are de-pulped, fermented, washed, and dried in the sun. Afterward, it's transported to the dry mill. There, the parchment is de-husked and carefully prepared for export

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)