Nicaragua - Finca El Limoncillo - 1lb

Finca El Limoncillo - named after the small lemons that were growing on the farm when it was purchased in 1930 - has a long history of producing great coffee. Bruno Mierisch arrived from Germany in the 1800s to help Nicaragua build out its rail infrastructure, for which he was paid in land in the Matagalpa region. He settled into a life of coffee farming, and his family still runs the Fincas Mierisch group to this day.

This particular lot has its own curious history. In 2001 some members of the Mierisch family came across a roadside fruit vendor that happened to be selling seeds of the "Java" variety of coffee beans, which are descended from traditional heirloom varieties in Ethiopia. They were skeptical at first, but the seeds turned out to be authentic, and the plot of trees they planted at Finca El Limoncillo has gone on to win several awards including 2nd place in Nicaragua’s 2007/2008 Cup of Excellence.

The coffee from these trees, now deemed Javanica to represent the variety's new Nicaraguan home, is carefully selected and processed to give us this well-balanced cup with notes of vanilla cream, fresh croissants, and peanut brittle.