Nicaraguan Journey – Seeing, Tasting, and Feeling Coffee at its

Coffee, Jungles & Kindness

Hi, I’m Savina, founder of The Bean Explorer. In February I packed a big backpack and a heart full of questions, then flew 9 000 kilometres west to Nicaragua. I wanted to meet the people behind coffee beans, drink the air they breathe, and choose coffees that carry their stories. This is what I saw, felt, and learned… 

Me and the Coffee pickers

I traveled with Larry Rivera Bolt up the Matagalpa hills to watch the last pick of the 2024‑25 harvest, hear why the rebound matters, and taste a new, fruit‑bright coffee born from yeast‑guided fermentation.

Nicaragua captivates with its breathtaking landscapes: from lush mountains and volcanic valleys to paradisiacal beaches, it truly has it all. It's also home to a cherished natural treasure: coffee.

A number that changes everything

Nicaragua is the world’s 12th largest coffee producer. “We will reach 2.6 million 60‑kg bags this season, told me Julio - a proud farmer from Matagalpa - 200 000 more than last year.”  It’s a simple figure, yet it means school fees paid, roofs repaired, and new seedlings for next year.

Some plantations grow in the shade of the tropical rainforest and others in sprawling monoculture fields across the North-Central Nicaragua. As you drive in the region, you pass by kilometer after kilometer of coffee beans left to dry in the open air in what is locally known as beneficios (more about them - in the next story)

Coffee growing

Coffee workers

Grown in harmony with the country’s rich biodiversity, Nicaraguan coffee is often cultivated on small farms using traditional methods that honor both the land and its people. Most of the hands picking Nicaragua’s coffee are women’s hands. On some days they walk long kilometers to harvest the beans from the long rows of coffee shrubs planted amongst the trees in the jungle. Each basket on their hips held about eight kilos of fruit—small fortunes in red and gold.

Tasting Nicaragua

Of course, we cupped a lot. And yes, I had to bring back for you - warm cherries, full of rain‑born sweetness, 87 SCA points. Thank you for crossing it with me! Try our Nicaragia single origin

Next: some of the most exotic farms, beneficios and Cupping.