SUSTAINABLE COFFEE

Community involvement: Our coffee production is a small one, therefore, the quantity of people working in the farm is not too big, nevertheless, we have a very close relationship with the farm workers and their families. We try to encourage them to learn and to improve their standard of living. People working and living in the farm have already changed their point of view about the environment. They are involved in the research activities carried out in El Jaguar learning a lot about the importance of nature preservation.

It is marvellous to see the change in the children that before didn’t like to go to school, but nowadays they not only love it, but are also very interested in learning. They even want to learn English in order to understand the “Birds guides” and the tourists that visit El Jaguar. As part of the big family from El Jaguar the children receive notebooks, pencils and books at the beginning of the school year. Near El Jaguar there are 3 schools and a Health Centre in a 4 miles radius.

Nicaraguan El Jaguar Coffee
By Christy Thorn from Allegro Coffee Co.

El Jaguar is a family run farm, owned by Georges and Lili Duriaux Chavarría. Their goal is to produce high quality environmental friendly coffee in harmony with nature, and with the community as well.

El Jaguar is located atop the Isabelia Mountain Range, Nicaragua’s finest coffee growing area, in the Province of Jinotega. The farm is 1350 m (4430 ft) above sea level in a tropical cloud forest. This microclimate provides a long cool growing season for the coffee, ideal for producing intense flavour characteristics in the cup.

George follows traditional wet-milling techniques to process the coffee in his ecologically friendly beneficio (wet mill). No water is used to ferment the beans after the cherry pulp has been removed in a small gravity-fed depulping machine.

The flavours are rich with cognac-like sweetness and depth; well balanced with crisp, clean acidity and hints of cocoa and hazelnut. El Jaguar is the first coffee selected by Whole Foods Market to receive the Authentic Food Artisan seal. George and Lili Duriaux-Chavarria are artisan producers, passionate about the fine organic coffee they produce; the environment in which it is grown; and the livelihoods of the people who help them sustain both.

The annual rainfall is 2050 mm, and the temperature varies from 46°F to 90°F (8°C to 32°C). This microclimate is ideal for producing the intense flavour characteristic of the cup.

Harmony with nature and biodiversity: At El Jaguar we produce sustainable coffee; that means we work in harmony with nature and the community. The small coffee plots are surrounded by cloud forest, we have minimized the amount of chemicals used, and we keep our soil 100% covered with plants. Bird research that have been carried out in the coffee plantations have shown we have a good amount and diversity of birds.

Land distribution:From the 120 hectares (300 acres) that conform our farm we have kept 95 hectares (240 acres) as preserved forest. Interwoven into them are 15 small coffee parcels that measure 25 hectares (60 acres).

Microclimate: The cloud forest has a humid subtropical climate plentiful of moisture throughout the year, most of it derived from low clouds or fogs which envelop the forest.

Sustainable coffee production: We avoid the use of herbicides to preserve the soil life. This way our soil is always covered with plants minimizing erosion. We control weeds by hand. We produce our own compost with waste products (like coffee pulp) and other organic materials providing nutrients and improving soil characteristics and life.

These two activities are very labour intensive, and with all the other coffee cares provides a good source of employment to the community. . As a result, we have 15 fix jobs the whole year round and 20 more during the harvest time. Nowadays there is a high unemployment rate, specially in the traditional coffee production areas. Therefore, even we are paying higher salaries than in the nearby farms, giving jobs to more people, is our main contribution to the social stability of the community.