Nicaragua

Nicaragua’s coffee sector may sit in the long shadows cast by its storied neighbors, but there is a growing number of coffee farmers in Nicaragua working hard to change the perception of the country’s coffee industry. The dedicated farmers in this small group are entrepreneurial, innovative, and tireless in their pursuit of quality. And they all owe a debt of gratitude to Daniel Canales, who made history in 2004 by becoming the Nicaraguan grower to win a Cup of Excellence (CoE) competition with a certified organic coffee. That competition only validated for an international audience what locals in Nicaragua’s coffee sector had known for decades: that Nicaragua is capable of producing truly extraordinary coffees, and that there is no contradiction between commitments to organic farming and coffee quality.

We are proud to partner in Nicaragua with the Canales family, which has been turning cow pastures in the low-slung hills above Pueblo Nuevo into coffee forests for more than half a century.

The Canales family of Pueblo Nuevo is a Nicaraguan national treasure and a singular example of how pairing organic farming practices with a relentless focus on coffee quality can create economic, social, and environmental value.

The family got its start in coffee back in 1958, when Don Pio Canales purchased a sprawling cattle farm in the hills above Pueblo Nuevo that he later called Los Delirios. His son Daniel bet the farm, quite literally, on coffee, and over the past 35 years, he and his sons Milton, Norman, and Donald have doubled down on that bet again and again, expanding the farm gradually through steady reinvestment of their coffee earnings. Along the way, they have made Los Delirios a reference point for the country’s coffee sector and organic farmers everywhere.

The family’s story arc changed dramatically with Daniel’s historic CoE win in 2004. We purchased that winning lot and have never looked back.

Today, Los Delirios bears little resemblance to the farm Don Pio purchased nearly 60 years ago. Since Daniel took over, the farm has tripled in size to nearly 400 acres—not so much a farm, perhaps, as a collection of small farms cobbled together around the core of the old estate. As the farm has grown, the family has created more employment opportunities for its neighbors, never losing the exacting focus on quality that helped it win that seminal 2004 CoE competition. The family’s commitment to quality is visible today in its wet milling experimentation, its new dry mill and vast complex of raised and shaded drying beds, and its expanded renovation with high-quality cultivars including Geisha and Pacamara.

But the Los Delirios story isn’t just about the economic success the Canales family has achieved through its relentless pursuit of coffee quality. It is also, importantly, a story of social and environmental impact.

The Canales family’s steady reinvestment in coffee production has followed a simple formula, producing delicious organic coffee while turning pasture lands into havens of biodiversity: coffee-based agroforestry systems that are sequestering carbon, regulating the water cycle, and creating a natural habitat for flora and fauna. In the process, they have generated employment opportunities and environmental benefits for their neighbors, and delicious coffee for Intelligentsia and our guests.

For more perspective on Los Delirios and our long relationship with the Canales family, listen to this conversation between the buyer who purchased Intelligentsia’s first lot from Los Delirios, vice president of coffee Geoff Watts, and the buyer who purchased the last one, director of sourcing and shared value Michael Sheridan.