People
Beneficio Las Segovias is a very organized Mill and well known in the area of Nueva Segovia. It is located on the northern border of Nicaragua, in the city of Ocotal. Its name comes from the region itself, ie. Nueva Segovia. This region is recently distinguishing itself for producing some of the very finest coffees in the country and Las Segovias is clearly one of the best examples.
Las Segovias sits at an elevation between 1300 and 1800 m.a.s.l and is run by Luis Alberto Balladarez and his son, who was also a national judge at The Cup of Excellence. Don Luis is a mill owner, coffee farmer, and manager of several different coffee farms. He is no stranger to producing exceptional quality coffee. For him, coffee is a family tradition, but his insatiable curiosity and fierce passion brought him to focus on specialty coffee and lead to great success. It’s exactly his expertise that makes many other farmers entrust him to process their coffee each year.
This mill is connected to other different farms and cooperatives of the regions. It serves multiple farmers who daily deliver and bring back their coffee across the mountains. Every day Las Segovias receive a number of lots to be processed by maintaining the highest consistency.
Product
Coffee is one of the most important products for export in Nicaragua and you can find a range of flavours in coffee: typically quite complex, fruity flavour and clean acidity. The secret of Beneficio Las Segovias is the extreme care for the coffee processing. Luis Alberto is obsessed with coffee quality and with every detail in each step, from the harvest to the process into the dry mill to the cupping lab. Only by doing this way, he will be able to deliver excellent and consistent cups.
In our visits to Beneficio Las Segovias (2020), The Coffee Quest experienced an impressive level of organization, especially the drying beds. The cupping room, drying patios and dry mill are immaculate. Luis Alberto carefully catalogs and tracks every picking he receives.
The main difference with the other farms are a closed environment where to dry coffee, shade nets and a quite low temperature. Luis Alberto and his staff have one main strategy: keeping as stable as possible the conditions of the coffee during its processing.
Luis Alberto also runs several different farms such as Un Regalo de Dios, which is indeed the winner of 5th place at The Nicaragua Cup of Excellence 2018 and high rankings on the latest editions of CoE.
Price
The Coffee Quest started the collaboration with Luis Alberto in 2018 and we are extremely happy to see it growing and strengthening over years. What excites us the most is seeing him reaching great success.
Planet
The Coffee Quest is happy to see that Beneficio Las Segovias uses organic products to fertilize the soil. Climate change is one of the main challenges of Luis Alberto, especially when it affects maturation and fermentation of cherries. Luis Alberto is doing his part in the climate challenge. Each coffee process is carefully monitored at this farm with a closer look also at the residuals after the depulping that may pollute water and soil.
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