How to Brew Delicious Pour-Over Nicaragua Bosawas Estate Black Honey Coffee_How Much Coffee to Use for Brownie Pour-Over

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Nicaragua Coffee - Bosawas Estate Information Story Introduction

Processing Plant Introduction

Cafetos de Segovia micro-batch processing plant belongs to the second-generation sisters Ana and Martha Albir of the Albir family. They inherited their passion for coffee from their father. The Albir family bought a coffee farm in 1991 until political disputes forced them to leave the country and stop the daily operations of the farm. In 2007, Ana and Martha decided to take over the farm and inherit from their father. In 2015, they also invested in a processing plant and began coffee processing at Cafetos de Segovia in 2016, providing processing and export services not only for their own family farm but also for 11 nearby farms.

Origin Introduction

The Nueva Segovia region and its surrounding hills are located on the northwestern border of Honduras and Nicaragua. Among all coffee-producing regions in Nicaragua, Nueva Segovia is one of the smallest, but the flavor of coffee from Segovia is excellent. Nicaragua has been commercially growing coffee for over a century, however, due to political and economic instability, it has not received much attention from coffee professionals. In recent years, coffee plantations that were taken over during the Nicaraguan Revolution have been returned to local families, and Nicaragua is striving to become a distinctive coffee-producing country.

Caturra and Catuai Coffee Varieties Introduction

Caturra

Caturra's taste is filled with fruitiness, the acidity of berries, somewhat complex and sharp, with a finish full of blueberry notes. The raw beans appear hard and green - this is Caturra's greatest characteristic.

Caturra is a single-gene variant of Bourbon, discovered in Brazil in 1937. Both its yield capacity and disease resistance are better than Bourbon, and the plant is shorter, making harvesting convenient. Unfortunately, like Bourbon, it has the problem of biennial yield fluctuations. However, its flavor is comparable to or slightly inferior to Bourbon beans. More importantly, it has extremely strong adaptability, not requiring shade trees - it can thrive even when directly exposed to intense sunlight, commonly known as "Sun Coffee." It can adapt to high-density planting but requires more fertilization, increasing costs, so farmers initially had low acceptance of it.

However, during the 1970s when coffee prices rose sharply, farmers switched to planting Caturra to increase yields. With vigorous promotion by Brazilian and Colombian authorities, the results were fruitful. Farmers accepting Caturra meant a major transformation in cultivation techniques. Brazil and Colombia adopted high-yield, high-density sun-exposed cultivation. By 1990, one million hectares could harvest 14 million bags of coffee beans, increasing production capacity by 60%. No wonder high-yield, high-quality Caturra has become a variety relied upon by various producing countries today.

Caturra is suitable for cultivation from low altitudes of 700 meters to high altitudes of 1700 meters. It has strong altitude adaptability, but the higher the altitude, the better the flavor, while yield capacity relatively decreases - this is the fate of specialty beans. Some in academia call Caturra the intensive and sun-exposed version of Bourbon, which is quite insightful. There is also a yellow Caturra variant (Caturra Amarello) in Central and South America, but its reputation is not as good as Yellow Bourbon.

When lightly roasted, Caturra has obvious acidity, overall brightness, and if properly processed, sweetness can be expressed very well. However, compared to Bourbon, the coffee body is relatively lower, and the cleanliness of the mouthfeel is somewhat lacking.

Catuai

Catuai raw beans are relatively soft, with a sweet taste and less astringency, as if everything scores only 65 points. This is a variety that Brazil has strongly promoted, but currently hasn't achieved significant success.

Catuai is also an Arabica hybrid variety, a cross between Mundo Novo and Caturra. It has better resistance to natural disasters, especially wind and rain. It inherits Caturra's advantage of short plant height, overcoming Mundo Novo's shortcomings. Another advantage is its solid fruit setting - the fruits don't easily fall off when blown by strong winds, compensating for Arabica's weakness of fragile fruits. However, its overall flavor performance is more monotonous than Caturra and also more monotonous than Mundo Novo while lacking body, which is its greatest regret. Additionally, its fruit growth and harvesting lifespan is only about ten years, making its short lifespan another weakness.

Catuai also has differences between red fruit (Catuai Vermelho) and yellow fruit (Catuai Amarello). The fruits come in both red and yellow, but so far, no yellow fruits have been found to taste better than red fruits. On the contrary, some people have found in cupping that although coffee processed from some yellow fruits has good acidity, the cleanliness of the coffee mouthfeel is worse than that from red fruits. Statistically, red fruit Catuai wins awards more frequently.

Because Caturra has high yields and is less susceptible to pests and diseases, but has poor taste and lacking flavor, Catuai was developed based on Caturra to improve these shortcomings of poor taste and flavor, though it seems somewhat too balanced.

Washed Process Introduction

In response to the drawbacks of traditional natural processing, the washed process was developed. First, harvested cherries are put through a depulper to separate most of the pulp from the coffee beans, then guided to a clean water tank where they are soaked in water for fermentation to completely remove the remaining pulp layer. After fermentation is complete, they are dried either by sun or using machines until the moisture content drops to 12%. Since the washed process removes the pulp first, there's no need to worry about mold or insect infestation problems during drying, unlike with the natural process.

(↑ Depulper removing pulp) (↑ Fermentation in water) (↑ Spread flat for drying)

Natural process coffee has rich and full flavors with very distinct and diverse layers, while washed process coffee has a very clean and refreshing taste with obvious fruit acidity. Different processing methods give coffee beans unique aromas.

Flavor Description

Features lactic fermentation acidity, while bringing grape and brown sugar flavors, with an Earl Grey tea texture and uplifting sweetness in the aftertaste.

Roasting Recommendations/Analysis

Recommended brewing equipment: Pour-over, French press, Siphon

Brewing Analysis

Today we introduce FrontStreet Coffee's common method for hand-pouring Nicaragua coffee: V60 three-pour method

Segmented extraction, dividing all brewing water into three injections

Suitable for light roast, medium-light roast, and medium roast coffee beans

Use V60 dripper

Increasing bloom time or number of water breaks can enhance the richness of coffee taste.

The segmented extraction method of three-pour technique

Advantages: More layered than single-pour, can clearly distinguish the front, middle, and back-end flavors of coffee. The method is to increase the amount of water poured each time after blooming, usually pouring when the coffee liquid is about to drop to the surface of the coffee bed, using small, medium, and large water flows for three-stage extraction.

Disadvantages: Has relatively high requirements for water flow rate and volume.

FrontStreet Coffee's Nicaragua Coffee Pour-Over Parameter Recommendations

Using a V60 dripper for brewing can enhance the layered flavors of pour-over, making it taste richer and cleaner; perfectly expressing the rich floral and fruity aromas of Nicaragua coffee with its soft fruit-like acidity.

15g of coffee, water temperature 89-90°C, grind BG 5R (Chinese standard 20-mesh screen pass rate 64%), water-to-coffee ratio close to 1:15

Method: 30g water for bloom, bloom time 30s. The hot water in the pour-over kettle should be poured clockwise in circles centered on the middle of the dripper. Start timing when brewing begins, pour water to 30g, then stop pouring, wait 30 seconds for the first pour.

For the first pour, circle like before, but the speed can be slightly slower. When reaching the outer circle, speed up a bit. Stop pouring around 1:15 seconds. When the liquid level drops by 1/3, pour again. The second pour should concentrate on the center, and the water flow should not hit the connection between coffee powder and filter paper to avoid channel effect. End extraction around 2:05 seconds. The tail section can be omitted (the longer the time, the more astringency and rough texture will increase).

Segments: 30-125-230g

Important Notice :

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