How to experience Nicaragua's coffee culture, one sip at a time

Yahoo

28-02-2025

Though today damp mists linger low over its forest-coated mountain peaks, Nicaragua was forged in volcano fire. Welts seared into the landscape have become today's fertile valleys and scorching pools of molten lava birthed scenic crater lakes. That nutrient-rich volcanic soil, the head-spinning altitudes and the heavy heat of the tropical Central American climate converge to create the ideal climes for coffee cultivation. As interest in Nicaragua amongst travellers continues to grow, most visitors congregate in west coast hubs like San Juan del Sur, Granada and León, but far fewer venture to the prime coffee country in Nicaragua's north, offering a chance to bypass the backpacker crowds and explore small-hold haciendas and self-sustaining farms.
Amid the mountains, the city of Matagalpa sits in the centre of Nicaragua's coffee country. Three peaks oversee each street in the sloping city: Arenal, Cerro Apante and Cerro Frio. Travellers who bypass the city miss out on the whitewashed walls of the Cathedral of San Pedro Apostle, caffeine consumption contextualisation at the Museo de Cafe and a deep dive into Nicaragua's revolutionary history at Casa Museo Comandante Carlos Fonseca. Make an ascent up the encircling mountains to el Castillo del Cacao to learn about growing, harvesting and processing cocoa amid kitsch medieval-mimicking architecture.
Further into the forested interior, Selva Negra Ecolodge hosts a range of tours of Matagalpa's mountainous surrounds, starting with its own sprawling coffee farm. Learn to craft the perfect cup, starting at the seed, on a walk through the lodge's farmland, nurseries and organic laboratory. Recoup after a humid hike over the fertile hills with a steaming mug of fresh brewed, single Nicaraguan source coffee. Conserving a third of their property as virgin cloud forest and another third as land for growing coffee beans, the highland resort's unobstructed jungles still ring with cacophonic howler monkey cries.
Chart a course north east to the smaller city of Estelí, which is surrounded by natural reserves, including the cloud forests of Miraflor and the jungle of Bosawás — Central America's largest protected rainforest. Start the day with breakfast at Café Luz, a social enterprise serving dishes produced with ingredients sourced from local gardens and coffee produced by local small coffee growers. Take a break from the coffee quest and visit Miraflor Natural Reserve — where there's a chance to glimpse the resplendent and revered quetzals, long-billed toucans and colourful parakeets, which call the reserve home. Back in Estelí, browse the town's small family-owned leather and crafts shops or learn how classic Nicaraguan cigars are made with a lesson at the TaviCusa factory.
These vast forests sprawl into the department of Jinotega, another stretch of humid mountainside primed for coffee cultivation. Its small eponymous city is dubbed 'the city of mists' for the omnipresence of the low forest fog and, while it's known to locals for its coffee production, it's barely known to outsiders at all. Stay on one of the undisturbed streets lined by colonial-style buildings, fuelling up for your excursions with sweet plantain fritters stuffed with black beans, which are sold in the streetside market stalls.
Pay a visit to Recreo Coffee & Roasterie, a family-owned estate surrounded by trees and secluded in the Jinotega mountains. Visitors can stay overnight in the farmhouse, spending a whole day walking through the process of cultivating, harvesting, roasting and brewing coffee. Head next to La Bastilla Estate, just beyond the bounds of the Datanlí-el Diablo Nature Reserve. Spy rare orchids along the reserve's riverside trails before sleeping under the spell of sonorous jungle sounds in on-site La Bastilla Ecolodge.
Finish your caffeine-fuelled tour further north, up on the brink of the Nicaraguan-Honduran border, in Somoto. Another small city tucked into the verdant hills, it serves as the gateway for the scenic canyon of the same name. In a landscape pockmarked by bat-filled caves and secluded natural swimming pools, the canyon crag carves through the ashen volcanic earth. Hike the vast black rocks, float on a rubber ring through the canyon's centre, or ride horses above the action on the rim of the canyon. Recoup from your adventure in one of Somoto's busy bakeries, such as Taller de Rosquillas Maricruz. Join in a favoured local tradition of pairing rosquillas (sweet cornflour doughnut-shaped cookies) with hot mugs of single-source brew.
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