Central American Coffee, New Dimension

This is the first ever blend created by Flatlands Coffee! Called Nica Cabal as a reference to the blend components of Nicaraguan and Guatemalan coffees to represent Central American coffees.

50% consists of Nicaraguan coffee collected from 2,300 small producers of the PRODECOOP. These producers and their respective cooperatives are located in the departments of Esteli, Madriz, and Nueva Segovia, in northern Nicaragua. This coffee is certified organic and Fair Trade.

Over its existence, PRODECOOP has developed a long line of programs that aim to support its members in a multitude of different ways. They are able to fund these programs using their Fair Trade premium. The initiatives include supporting educational opportunities for children, providing loans to women in and affiliated with the organization, providing cervical-cancer screenings and other health-care services, offering member education regarding pest control and fertilization, and creating and supporting systems to increase food security for the communities.

The second 50% of this coffee blend comes from a blend of small farm Guatemala producers. This Guatemala blend was created by the importer and was based on cup quality and character, seeking a balance of “taste of place” with availability and price. This Waykan lot comes with regional and often microregional traceability, but are not farm- or producer-specific.

The coffees selected for this lot were chosen for their pristine example of the dynamic character of coffees from Huehuetenango, with their crisp acidity reminiscent of lemon, grape, or apple, and a balance of toffee and sweet nuts, like almond. In the Maya Q’qnjobal dialect in the region, “waykan” means “star, or light that shines in the sky at night.” The indigenous population in and around Huehuetenango plays a large role in the coffee production here, and coffee accounts either directly or indirectly for roughly 80 percent of the local economy.