Bethania Varietal – JavaPreparation – Anaerobic NaturalLocation – Macuelizo, Nueva SegoviaAltitude – 1650 maslImporter - Falcon Finca Bethania, established in 1991 in Nicaragua’s Nueva Segovia region, covers 42 hectares and cultivates multiple coffee varieties. Managed by third-generation producers Ana and Martha Albir, whose family has farmed there since 1930, the farm emphasizes sustainability through water recycling, forest preservation, and wildlife protection. It has held Rainforest Alliance certification since 2014. Cafetos de Segovia, a dry mill in Ocotal, was established in 2015 by the Albir family to improve coffee quality and value after low regional prices. The family’s history includes land loss during the Nicaraguan revolution, but they now operate several farms and a greenhouse for experimental coffee. The mill serves their farms and 47 other local producers, processing up to 3,000 quintales (about 138,000 kg) at a time and employing up to 30 people during harvest. Ripe Java cherries are hand-picked in the cool morning and delivered the same afternoon to Bethania wet mill close to the border of Honduras, ensuring sugars remain intact and uncontrolled fermentation is kept in check. Whole fruit is then sealed in food-grade tanks fitted with one-way valves, where the cherries ferment anaerobically for 48–72 hours; pH is checked twice daily. Once drained, the coffee begins a two-stage patio dry: for the first five to six days it rests under shade on patios carpeted with dried husk and covered by black mesh to moderate temperatures at this lower altitude (< 900 masl), before being moved into full sun until moisture reaches 10–11 percent. Cherries are turned every three to four hours and heaped during the hottest midday period to prevent surface cracking, bringing total drying to roughly 20–25 days. After a 30-day resting period in GrainPro to stabilise humidity, the parchment is hulled, size- and density-sorted, colour-sorted and hand-picked to export-ready zero-defect standards.
