Tag Archives: Nicaragua

Coffee Centre of Specialty Coffee: The Interview

October 24, 2018 — by Brian Clark, PhD

Esquina de los Cafés is a specialty-coffee center in Matagalpa, Nicaragua. Its guiding ideas are that direct dealing should be fair and that 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 locally roasted specialty coffee to residents and visitors. Carla oversees finances, packaging and artistic design. The business also serves customers abroad who discovered its coffee while visiting Nicaragua.

Hard Times for a Tourism-Based Niche

The article describes how Nicaragua’s 2018 civil unrest harmed tourism-dependent businesses. Esquina explored supplying Nicaraguan coffee shops, developing partnerships in the United States and controlling costs. Its longer-term ambitions included expanding production capacity and developing chocolate products.

Cornerstones of the Coffee Business

The operation is presented as resting on three principles: originality, data and control. Originality concerns developing distinctive coffee and chocolate products. Data and control concern monitoring processes while managing quality, quantity and the intended market niche.

Alex combines lessons drawn from Germany and the United States: make the product properly and honestly, while also improving the consumer’s experience. The broader purpose is to celebrate Nicaragua as a coffee-producing country and retain more coffee-related economic activity where the crop is grown.

Direct Deal Is Fair

Esquina favors direct relationships with growers over relying solely on certification systems. According to the article, it works with producers around Aranjuez, between Matagalpa and Jinotega near the Cerro Dantali–El Diablo Natural Reserve. Coffee fruit is sourced locally, with prices linked to quality standards.

Because the grower, roaster and retailer are all based in Nicaragua, this model is intended to keep more of the supply chain and its economic benefit at the point of origin. Esquina summarizes that philosophy on its packaging with the phrase “Direct Deal is fair.”

Better Coffee, Better Experience

Alex argues that excessive roasting temperatures can produce burnt beans and an acrid cup. He advocates closely controlled roasting designed to preserve distinctive flavors and create a more interesting sensory experience.

His work also includes education. He leads coffee-farm and milling tours, teaches roasting classes and guides visitors through coffee tastings, or cuppings, so they can better understand the aromas, flavors and production choices behind each coffee.