Nicaragua Mier Ruiz Family's Huellas Estate Washed Process Java Javanica Long Bean Coffee

Nicaragua Mierisch Family Footprint Estate Washed Process Javanica Long Bean Coffee

The Mierisch family of Nicaragua has been growing coffee since 1908 — a heritage now stretching back more than 100 years. Over the past 15 years, the family's investments in coffee equipment, processing technology, and staff training have driven remarkable growth in their micro-lot beans, changes that reflect the effort of the whole family and the tireless dedication of each member. Under Mierisch family leadership, their estates have collected multiple COE awards.

Today the estate is managed by Dr. Erwin Mierisch, who trained as a gynecologist in the United States and also serves as a senior COE judge, frequently traveling to coach farmers on cultivation and processing techniques. The family's new generation — Erwin Mierisch, Eleane Mierisch, and Steve Mierisch — now runs the estate's day-to-day affairs.

The Mierisch family owns nine estates in total, eight of them in Nicaragua: San Jose, Limoncillo, Escondida, Milagros, Placeres, Los Altos, Mama Mina, and Suspiro. The ninth, Cerro Azul, lies in Honduras. You may well have heard of Limoncillo — the "Lemon Tree Estate" — which took second place in the 2008 COE; we have previously sold its coffee, including the Nicajava and Javanica varieties.

Javanica is a variety successfully revived in Nicaragua by Erwin Mierisch, the current CEO of the Mierisch family, together with his father Esteban Mierisch. It is a rare variety that is not widely planted: its susceptibility to disease makes cultivation difficult and yields poor. Yet it is an excellent coffee well worth growing. In 2008, the Mierisch family harvested about eight bags of Javanica. The beans are relatively slender, echoing the early Ethiopian LONGBERRY, and are related to Typica — a very special variety with distinct African character. The variety was later introduced elsewhere, such as Bolivia, but because Nicaragua was the first country to revive it, everyone has kept the name Javanica.

Coffee Details

Region: Yasica Sur

Estate: Finca La Huella

Variety: Nicajava

Processing: Washed

Flavor Description: The dry aroma features persimmon and floral notes, orange, lemon, melon, and stone fruit, with a sugar-water-like sweetness that is quite persistent. The dry aroma also presents almond and floral aromas. When sipped, it reveals fruit flavors of apple, navel orange, lemon peel, and kiwi, accompanied by subtle floral notes, rosemary hints, and a honey-water sweetness. The finish continues with floral aromas and orange peel, with an overall clean and elegant texture and excellent balance.

FrontStreet Coffee's Recommended Brewing Method:

Dripper: Hario V60

Water Temperature: 90°C

Grind Size: Fuji Rokin grinder setting 3.5

Brewing Technique: Water-to-coffee ratio of 1:15, using 15g of coffee grounds. First pour 25g of water for a 25-second bloom. Second pour to 120g, then stop the pour. Wait until the water level in the coffee bed drops to halfway, then continue pouring slowly until reaching 225g total water. Extraction time is approximately 2:00 minutes.

Analysis: Using a three-stage brewing method to clearly distinguish the front, middle, and back-end flavors of the coffee. Because the V60 has many ribs and drains faster, stopping the pour can extend the extraction time.

FrontStreet Coffee Recommendation

Washing is a traditional way of processing coffee cherries using water. The usual steps are flotation, pulping, tank fermentation to strip the mucilage, a rinse or further soak, drying, and finally hulling to obtain the green beans. The long time the beans spend in water triggers chemical changes inside them, substantially consuming the simple sugars (fructose and glucose) and thus lowering the bean's sugar content while raising its various organic acids. Washed coffee therefore tends to preserve more of the bean's own aromatics while showing bright fruit acidity, cleanliness, and freshness.

Most people know Yirgacheffe but not why its smallholders send their cherries to cooperatives for centralized processing and sale. FrontStreet's Idido Cooperative is an outstanding processing team from Idido village with polished, practiced technique, whose coffee was "discovered" and became famous precisely because of its exceptionally refined, clean cup. Washing is what lets the Idido lot display its jasmine florals and bright citrus acidity to the fullest; after a medium-light roast it also unfolds green tea and honey tones, and it suits pour-over, cold brew, espresso, and more.

When it comes to washed coffee, FrontStreet's Kenya "Cherry Tomato" is one of the most celebrated examples, because Kenya excels at double-fermented washed processing — the wash cycle is repeated, floating, soaking, washing off residual mucilage, soaking again, drying, hulling, and storing. Through repeated rinsing and soaking, the fruit-juice character is pushed to its extreme: notes of cherry tomato, dried dark plum, snow pear, black plum, and golden sugar, with a sweet-tart, juicy mouthfeel — a favorite among serious coffee players.

Jamaica, once among the most famous coffee origins in the world, struggled with insufficient sunshine. The island's maritime climate brings shorter daylight than most origins, so washed processing was born to lower the risk of beans spoiling. The key difference from natural processing is that the skin, pulp, and mucilage are removed before drying, reducing the moisture wrapped around the bean, shortening drying time, and producing translucent, low-defect beans. Washed processing is what guarantees Blue Mountain coffee's rich aroma — hazelnut, cream, chocolate, and caramel in pure form, with a balanced cup in which no single note dominates or falls short.