A New beginning

Some of you might remember our Nicaraguan traceable farm lots that we offered from 2015 to 2018. Sadly, because grave mismanagement of EXPOCAMO, our then export ally, we had to pull out and leave this country which we hold so dear - but it was when Arjan van der Hoek from Bean Brothers introduced us to Rina and René Paguaga in 2020 that we regained hope. We were immediately drawn to their transparency, care for quality - but most of all, their integrity.

Today, Santa Lucila dry mill is a reliable drying and processing centre for producers in the region. Besides providing good prices and fair wages for a region where it’s very difficult to make a living, the Paguaga family understand quality from farm to cup, as they own some specialty farms and operate a roastery in Florida called Café Vidita. In light of the country’s history, it would have been much easier in their shoes to turn away from coffee production as many others did. Their commitment to it, even in the most extreme circumstances, shows their resolve. A partner like this made us confident to take a second chance on our beloved Nicaragua.

Only when this relationship with Santa Lucila was established, did we dare to make promises again to our old friends whom we used to represent. After all, our former exporter disappeared with their coffee leaving terrible damage to these farmers’ livelihoods. But back in 2015, that same exporter and us were the first to propose a direct relationship between them and the end-market to them, and this idea stuck so hard that even disaster couldn’t break their resolve. After our visit in 2023, many of the farmers we used to work with rewarded our loyalty and decided to form a bond with Santa Lucila especially for the purpose of the relationship with This Side Up.

Our biggest ever failure in the company was to put so much trust in our former exporter even when signs that he was not to be trusted were coming from farmers, buyers, lenders. Today, Byron Rodriguez, Luiz Almendarez and family and Silvio Sanchez are part of the This Side Up family once again, together with our new friends Gonçalo Castillo and Moncho Diaz - and all are keen to cooperate with René in our value chain. We have seldom seen such committed farmers and are confident that this group will serve as an inspiration for a new generation of Nicaraguan farmers who are keen to put their fates in their own hands.

Silvio Sanchez

Finca Santa Teresa
del Mogotón

Moncho Diaz

Finca Montelin &
La Dueña

GonZalo Castillo

Finca Las Promesas de San Blas

Rojo Signature

Blend of all five fincas

THIS SIDE UP VALUE CHAIN

PROCESSING

At Santa Lucila, coffee sundries in African beds, in concrete and zarand patios. Coffee is dried to 11% humidity before being stored in the warehouse where it is stabilised. Once an order is sent, it is selected and milled.

Traceability

You can find all the signed contracts and shipping documents that we made with Santa Lucila since 2022 below (Google Drive).

Key Achievements

2016: launched our roaster-farmer connection programme with EXPOCAMO and created links with roasters in seven countries in Europe.

2017: more than doubled our roaster base, created tailor-made pre-harvest lots for connected roasters, first natural, triple A and single variety lots, 1st, 5th and 7th place in the Cup of Excellence, partnered with many new producers.

2018: extended partner farmer base to six more farmers, created single variety java lots, started offering two mid-range signature lots based on flavour.

2019: imported half of all coffee especially for dedicated roasters, indicating a strong interest in directer forms of trade. Made first plans to import from organic producers.

2020-2021: as it became clear that EXPOCAMO was neither solvable nor reachable and Francisco’s entire operation in Ocotál had come to a standstill, we had to cease our Nicaragua operation entirely. We spent most of these years trying to get a hold of him and trying in vain to help our social lenders be remunerated for their losses.

2022: got in touch with René and Rina via Arjan van den Hoek. Exported a first shipment of Nicaraguan lots from his own farms and from Silvio Sanchez and recreated the two signature blends we used to offer, now named Rojo and Amarillo. In the meantime, started preparing to get our former producers back together.

2023: Lennart visited Nicaragua and laid the foundation for a bond between Santa Lucila and some of the members our former producer network. Also met Moncho Diaz and Gonçalo Castillo, good friends of our friends. Imported coffee from René’s own partners.

2024: first import since 2019 from our former producer partners, this time via Santa Lucila. Our Rojo blend is now made completely with coffees from the farmer group, after the relationship model we succesfully applied with our Brazil Signatures.

Our QC’s Flavour
impressions

Nicaragua can be anything from an everyday staple to a huge surprise. As much as it might not be the best season for washed coffees due to excessive rains, they arrived with plenty of red apple, caramel, some black tea and a pinch of citrus with a smooth mouthfeel and mild but vibrant acidity. It’s rather a coffee to enjoy on a daily basis. On the contrary, the naturals and anaerobics continue to excite us by their complexity. From very lively sparkling acidity yet bold body, to pronounced tropical fruits and florals, these coffees deserve a moment to be well enjoyed.

Renata Hardewijn, March 2024

Roasting Advice

If I’d have to pick one of the most malleable coffees to roast, it would be Nicaragua. With rather standard energy settings we would recommend to look into crack and end temperature by shortening development time and going slightly higher with your drop temperature. While some of the washed lots have the tendency to crash, they don’t require any extra energy or special airflow settings. Interestingly, after some trials of different setups for washed and naturals, we only apply one single Ikawa profile for each process from Nica.

CONTACT René Paguaga

René is in charge of Santa Lucila, you can contact him by email or phone. He is our main contact in Nicaragua and as an almost native to Florida, speaks fluent English.

CONTACT Rene Paguagua

EMAIL  renepaguaga512@gmail.com

TEL +505.8408.8925

Santa Lucila, Ocotál, Nicaragua

A FAMILY THAT STRIVES TO PUT THE SPECIAL IN SPECIALTY

Olga Rodriguez inherited a part of the family land when she became a coffee farmer.  Her parents were pioneers in producing fairly high quality coffee and had dedicated their livelihood to agriculture. When Olga got married to Luis, this land became a shared commitment. They have been growing coffee on it generation after generation. Olga and Luis have been continuing this tradition of coffee production in the family for the last 30 years. They were the first partners of the Nicaraguan Ensemble back in 2015. When they exported their coffees directly through This Side Up, they were able to get a higher price for their quality. It was the first time they actively reaped the economic benefits of their labour through coffee trade. Ever since they haven't stopped investing in improving quality as well as expanding production.

Olga and Luis have been stewards of the community. La Guadalupana is characterized by being a farm that preserves the environment since the only source of water in this community is on their lands. Actually, the estate consists of two distinct parts, Olga's and Luis's. Much of the land in the community is owned by Olga's family. In fact, before Luis bought his lots, it used to be owned by a relative of Olga's. When this relative died, the land was sold to Louis to keep it in the family. Today La Guadalupana supplies fresh water to most of the community, donated the local soccer field and offer wet milling service to those who do not have the machinery.

During our visit in 2020 we felt like coming back home to a remote family. The warmth and generosity of the Almendarez family is as apparent as their will to create direct ties and add value to their coffee. Not just the land but their family's aspirations also are hereditary in the Alamandarez clan. Both Arianova and Benhazir, their daughters are training to become not just coffee farmers but exporters, cuppers and quality experts as well. As far as the This Side Up partnership with the Almandarez family, even when EXPOCAMO went bust, we kept talking occasionally. Even though they’re small, they were instrumental in getting the group back together in their current form.

CULTIVARS

Red Catuai, Paca, Catimor and Java

elevation

1,427 meters

NOTABLE

La Guadalupana is characterized for being a farm that preserves the environment since the only source of water in this community is found on its land.

PROCESSING

Natural: Coffee cherries are harvested at their ripest point, selected and naturally processed. They are then driven to Santa Lucila in ventilated boxes, for dry milling, sorting and exporting. During the season, Silvio sometimes makes around two round trips from his estate, to the Drymill. This is a long process, since not so many boxes fit on the truck and the dirt road is bumpy and complicated to drive.

TASTIFY™ CUPPING NOTES

Contact The
Almendarez family

Contact Arianova and Benhazir from the Almendárez family directly through calls or via whatsapp (Spanish only).

CONTACT : Arianova, Benhazir

TEL : +505 8655 3429, +505 8413 5755

Photo gallery

You may use these videos freely to promote the Almendarez family’s coffee amongst your customers.

Coffee - a habit passed over generations

Coffee in the Rodriguez family has been trickled down because it is a tradition and a livelihood choice. Byron fondly recalls that it was his grandfather that planted coffee back in the days. It was financially and ecologically viable. His grandfather raised his family by coffee farming and then his father did the same. When they were teenagers, his father gave him and his 4 brothers each a piece of land for coffee farming. Even though there is hope for coffee farmers to earn a good price for their produce, the socio-economic situation in Nicaragua limits this dream. Many factors ranging from climate change, lack of labor, immigation to neighboring countries for better opportunities, pests, diseases and low prices deeply impact the motivation to continue producing coffee. Yet Byron, his brothers and their father are persistent to not stop this habit called coffee that has been empowering them economically across generations. His farm is located on the Honduran border and when we visited he showed us the outpost that the Nicaraguan army made on the highest part of his land, a reminder of the tumultuous history of this region. Byron is more than a coffee farmer, he is a mechanic and an inventor. It was his homemade coffee pulping setup that he showed Lennart in 2015 that inspired many other farmers worldwide in later origin trips: more than six mechanical wet-milling processes are connected to a single diesel generator in an ingenious way. The same ingenuity went into his coffee roasters - which he is famous for in the region. He builds them from scratch and sells them, providing him with more income than coffee. Byron’s coffee was becoming known in the Netherlands before our cooperation was forcedly stopped.

We are glad, this inventor can re-invent himself again through this revived cooperation.

CULTIVARS

Red and yellow Catuai, Java, Pacamara

elevation

1250-1586 meters

NOTABLE

They grow coffee in harmony with the environment. They use machetes to clean their coffee trees and don’t use any chemicals. All coffee is shade grown so the area is reforested. They do tissue management, it is a sanitary pruning by removing the dead part of the plant and leaving the living part to regenerate. They take care of the flora and fauna surrounding the natural reserve mountain in this region.

PROCESSING

Natural: Coffee cherries are harvested at their ripest point, selected and naturally processed. They are then driven to Santa Lucila in ventilated boxes, for dry milling, sorting and exporting. During the season, Silvio sometimes makes around two round trips from his estate, to the Drymill. This is a long process, since not so many boxes fit on the truck and the dirt road is bumpy and complicated to drive.

TASTIFY™ CUPPING NOTES

Contact Byron Rodriguez

Byron speaks only Spanish and can be directly contacted via telephone or on Whatsapp.

TEL : +505 8961 9581

Photo gallery

You may use these videos freely to promote Byron’s coffee amongst your customers.

THE PURSUIT OF HAPPINESS- a father’s dream

Moncho is a second generation coffee farmer. Growing up, Ramon was involved in farming because of his father’s passion towards agriculture. He really liked spending many days on their family farm. His father’s love for coffee equally inspired Moncho to pursue and become an agronomist. He and his father dreamed about their coffees finding homes and being recognized internationally. Their main dream was to export their coffee through direct trade which is now being fulfilled in their partnership with This Side Up and Santa Lucila. They have two different farms in the same mountain range - La Dueña in Dipilto, Nueva Segovia and Montelin in Jalapa, Nueva Segovia. As an agronomist and quality controller, Moncho has been keen to learn new processes. He is a strong example of a “serious farmer” in a country where commodity coffee farming is becoming less and less profitable. Unfortunately, a year ago his father passed away leaving Moncho with his spirit and their shared dream. Moncho strives to fulfill this shared dream and continue his father’s legacy through by producing high quality specialty coffee. Moncho continues to use his father’s dry mill and drying facilities for his own harvests. He hopes to get his brother involved in coffee farming and aspires to teach him the same way their father taught him when he was growing up.

Moncho is a good friend of the Almendarez family and Byron. We did not meet him before 2022, but his inclusion in the group was natural and a given once we met himBy producing different qualities, understanding quality and most of all, being a loyal and transparent partner, he is keen to create a different future for Nicaraguan coffee than what the general trend shows.

CULTIVARS

La Dueña:- Pacamara, Marsellesa, Parainema, Gesha and Sarchimor
Montelin-Pacamara, Parainema, Catimor T5296, Catuai, Gesha and Java

elevation

La Dueña - 1380 meters
Montelin- 1350 meters

NOTABLE

Coffee is intercropped with bananas and oranges. They utilize the coffee pulp as organic fertilizer. They practice agroforestry and are particular about the tree species which act as a nitrogen fixers for their soil. They conduct soil analysis every 2 years to understand the soil composition and essentially nutritional requirements to achieve better quality.

PROCESSING

Natural: Coffee cherries are harvested at their ripest point, selected and naturally processed. They are then driven to Santa Lucila in ventilated boxes, for dry milling, sorting and exporting. During the season, Silvio sometimes makes around two round trips from his estate, to the Drymill. This is a long process, since not so many boxes fit on the truck and the dirt road is bumpy and complicated to drive.

TASTIFY™ CUPPING NOTES

Contact JUAN RAMON DIAZ

Juan speaks Spanish and English and can be reached directly through calls or Whatsapp.

TEL : +505 8431 2195

Photo gallery

You may use these videos freely to promote Moncho’s coffee amongst your customers.

regenerating the roots

Gonzalo's grandfather educated him to respect Mother Earth growing up. Practically he has been related to coffee and the world it brings, all his life. He has been farming coffee for 45 years now along with livestock, fish, pigs and horses. Till then he was heavily relying on pesticides and inorganic fertilizers for coffee farming, his career of working for one of the largest exporters didn't help this cause either. It wasn't until a health crisis and learning about coffee from an industrial perspective, he realized the importance of cherishing the natural world. Even though he has 3 certifications - Rainforest Alliance, CAFE practices and SMS from Ecom, he finally stopped being an organic producer just on certificate instead became one in practice. He has been instrumental in spreading his organic farming knowledge among our other farmer friends. He has 3 children who are all doctors - a pediatrician, radiologist and psychologist. But all three of them have also passed the coffee school too! They all collectively have extensive knowledge on farm to cup including farm management, cupping, barista experience. They have been working with Gonzalo in various capacities to produce coffee.

Gonzalo cares for his coffees like he does his own children. Attentive yet stern with nutritional requirements! He strongly believes for a sustainable future, it is necessary to produce more but without compromising on the collective future. We hope to be in close touch the coming years on how to spread regenerative practices locally in a way that serves the farmers and their communities.

CULTIVARS

H10, H3, H18 , Starmaya , Marseillaise

elevation

1180 to 1280 meters

NOTABLE

The whole farm is planted in terraces because of its slope, they do not use herbicides, and pest control is based on biological products, they do not plant in the entire river bank and maintain a distance of 10 meters from the shore. All their coffee is shade grown protected with mosses. They plant new coffee with Canavalia that provides nitrogen and organic matter. Every year they make use of the coffee pulp to enable decomposing of the microorganism that help him to make the fertilizer.

PROCESSING

Natural and Anaerobic : Coffee cherries are hand picked and sorted before laying them on the African drying beds for the Natural process. The video below is representative of the Anaerobic fermentation processes where the barrel is prepared and suspended in water to maintain the low temperatures for 48-72 hours before taken to the drying beds.

TASTIFY™ CUPPING NOTES

Contact Gonzalo Castillo

Get in touch with Gonzalo directly on Whatsapp. He speaks Spanish only.

CONTACT : Gonzalo Castillo

TEL  +505 8237 5926

Photo gallery

You may use these videos freely to promote Gonzalo’s coffee amongst your customers.

A Red HOT partnership

Our Rojo blend is now made completely with coffees from the farmer group, after the relationship model we successfully applied with our Brazil Signatures. It is possible to create these blends that cater to the specialty market with fine flavors desired from a set origin and still making sure the farmers also get a little something for this process. This is the first year we want to create the Rojo blend with the coffees we have from our 5 farmers so this also benefits them economically. We designed this program to achieve the flavor stability we seek while only sourcing from the same partners we work with in Nicargua.

CULTIVARS

Red and yellow Catuai, Java, Pacamara

elevation

1180-1600 meters

NOTABLE

Signatures are blends created in origin for flavour stability. Ours are fully traceable and derive from a mix of the four unique relationships we have with our partners from Nicaragua : Gonzalo Castillo, Byron Rodriguez, Almendarez, Silvio Sanchez and Juan Ramon Diaz.

PROCESSING

Signatures lots are hand-picked by all farms, these lots undergo the same care as the single farmer lots, but are the bulk lots that are sorted to SHG standard instead of microlot standard.

TASTIFY™ CUPPING NOTES