Coffee Country

Coffee Centre of Specialty Coffee: The Interview

By Brian Clark, PhD · October 24, 2018

Esquina de los Cafés is presented as a specialty coffee center in Matagalpa, Nicaragua, dedicated to celebrating the country’s coffee culture. Its guiding ideas are straightforward: direct deals should be fair, and better coffee creates a better experience.

“You go to wine country, you get the best wine. You go to coffee country, you get the worst coffee.”

Alex, the coffee roaster behind Esquina de los Cafés, and his wife Carla built the business to offer high-quality specialty coffee to local customers and visitors. Carla oversees finances, packaging and artistic design. The article says the business also shipped coffee to tourists who wanted to continue enjoying it after returning home.

Hard Times for a Tourism-Based Niche

Because the business depended heavily on tourism, Nicaragua’s civil unrest and the resulting decline in visitors created serious difficulties in 2018. At the time of the interview, Esquina was considering distribution through Nicaraguan coffee shops, partnerships in the United States and tighter cost controls.

The business hoped eventually to recover its tourism market, expand production capacity with new equipment and pursue projects such as chocolate production.

Originality, Data and Control

The article identifies three foundations of the operation:

• Originality: developing distinctive coffee and chocolate products that offer consumers new experiences.
• Data: using information about production processes and sensory experiences to guide development.
• Control: managing quality, quantity and the intended market niche.

Alex describes two complementary influences on his approach: making products correctly and honestly, associated in the interview with his German experience, and making the customer experience better and new, associated with his experience in the United States.

Keeping Coffee’s Value at Its Origin

The article connects specialty coffee with tourism and local economic development. Although Nicaragua produces notable coffee, market pressure often sends its best beans abroad for roasting and retailing in wealthier countries. Esquina’s purpose was to help visitors experience excellent coffee within the country where it was grown.

Direct Deal Is Fair

Esquina favored a direct-trade model rather than relying primarily on certification programs. Its packaging carried the playful statement “Direct Deal is fair.”

The article says the business worked directly with growers near Aranjuez, between Matagalpa and Jinotega in the Cerro Dantali–El Diablo Natural Reserve. It sourced coffee fruit locally, paid premium prices and linked payment to quality standards.

Because the growers, roaster and retailer were all based in Nicaragua, more of the supply chain and its economic benefit could remain near the point of origin. The model also supported the presentation of Nicaragua as a destination for coffee culture.

Better Coffee, Better Experience

Alex argues that excessively high roasting temperatures can produce burned beans and an acrid cup. The article records his preference for keeping the roasting machine near 300°F, or about 149°C, and generally below 330°F, or about 165°C. These figures reflect the interviewee’s own roasting approach rather than a universal prescription.

Careful roasting, in his view, allows a wider range of flavors to emerge and creates a richer sensory experience.

The interview also portrays Alex as an educator. He led tours of coffee farms and milling facilities, taught roasting classes and guided visitors through tastings, or cuppings, so they could understand the coffee rather than simply drink it.