La Virgen Estate Guardabarranco ML

The story behind La Virgen Guardabarranco ML

This lot, named Guardabarranco, is named after the national bird of Nicaragua. It is 100% Catuai and stood out among the many day-lots they evaluate throughout the growing season as exceptional. The coffee’s floral and dark chocolate notes with honey sweetness reminded them of the colors of the Guardabarranco.

In 2012, Claudia Vanessa Rivera founded La Virgen with her husband with a vision of bettering the environment and local community. They produce high quality coffee with responsible practices on their 40-hectare farm and generate wealth not only for their own plantation but for the workers and the surrounding community.

The farm is in Las Nubes community of Jinotega in Northern Nicaragua at an altitude of 1,270 meters. In addition to Caturra and Catuai, they have small experimental microlots planted with java, pacamara, maracaturra, maragogype, and geisha varieties. They manage every aspect of production with their own wet and dry mill for micro lots, and have extremely exacting standards for quality, inspecting and performing quality control at every point. This has helped them grow from producing only 53 bags their first year to now producing 575 bags per year.