Last week I spent some time in Ocotal, a very beautiful little city, visiting a few farms in the area. As Ocotal is around 1200M above sea level, it's a bit cooler there, and the air seems so clean and fresh. A nice change to hot and busy Managua. The coffee is still green here, and not ready to harvest yet (the cherries need to be red/ripe). The area here produces a lot of more specialty coffee, with its high altitude and rich soil the coffee has a great flavour profile.
 |
| View from my hotel window in Ocotal |
The farm we visited, Ojo de Agua Finca, translates in english to the eye of the water. The farm is located in La Laguna, in the Municipality of Mozonte, about 26 km from the head of the department of Nueva Segovia (Ocotal). The Farm is surrounded by a vast area of jungle which is home to many different animal species. It was one of the most beautiful farms i've seen, and the hills and greenery really reminded me of NZ!
 |
| Sunlight streaming through the shade and onto the new coffee trees |
 |
Coffee cherries beginning to ripen
|
After this we paid a visit to a coffee mill, where the coffee is dried. As you can see by the sign, some of the coffee here is organic.
 |
| Lunchtime break |
Thursday and Friday I spent at the Nicaragua Coffee Festival judge training course. It was really interesting learning about how to be a barista judge; what to look for in the coffee, how to drink it properly, tastes to look for, and how to judge in their use of the machine. These standards are used worldwide, so it was a good course for me to partake in. It also helped my spanish, as was mostly done in spanish!
I then spent Sunday strolling around Masaya, a beautiful town 30km from Managua. I came here to visit the mercado (markets) to buy a hammock, and to stroll along the lake. Both were beautiful. Just having to decide now which clothes to ditch the get the hammock home!
No comments:
Post a Comment