METAPHYSICAL MELADIES, Nicaragua

Orange, Fig, Cherry, Green Tea

Nueva Segovia sits in the far north of Nicaragua, where the land folds into cool, mist-wrapped mountains along the Honduran border. Dipilto is its coffee heartland, a district of steep ridges and pine forest, thin air and sharp swings between day and night.

This lot is the work of Mario José Gonzáles, who tends the trees at Finca Los Suyates in El Perote across ground that climbs from 1,300 - 1,550 metres. His is the meticulous labour of the smallholder: selective picking at full ripeness, each day's harvest carried down to the wet mill.

The planting is Parainema, a hybrid bred for resistance to leaf rust and held in the cup for the weight and structure it keeps at height. It rewards the grower willing to work difficult land.

Where this coffee turns from convention is the ferment. The cherry is sealed and fermented anaerobically, held without oxygen so the sugars break down slow and deep, before the fruit is stripped and the seed washed clean. The method pulls the fruit forward without clouding it, laying a further layer of complexity over the clear, mineral frame of Dipilto.