Selva Negra Estate Coffee
             Selva Negra contains chocolate, lemon, plum and honey undertones.

Allow us to introduce to you a new coffee. It is a Nicaraguan coffee cultivated in the most ecological, environmentally and socially friendly way possible. It is a coffee with history, with pride and with high standards of quality. This superior coffee is now available to you through its preferred US distributor, Beanealogy.

History of the Estate

Selva Negra's history is in many ways the history of the coffee in Nicaragua altogether. In the 1880's the Nicaraguan government invited young German immigrants to come and settle in Nicaragua in order to promote coffee growing in the northern highlands. Many young immigrants accepted the offer, thus forming the main coffee plantations of the country; many of them bare names of their motherland. Selva Negra's (Black Forest) Coffee Estate is called Hammonia, Latin for Hamburg. Located at about 4,000 ft. above sea level, Hammonia has been producing fine old style Arabica coffee for over 100 years. Eddy Kühl & Mausi Kühl-Hayn, the farm's proprietors are descendants of two of these original German immigrants - Alberto Vogl and Klaus KÜhl.

Employee Benefits
Selva Negra is a very successful estate for many reasons, but mostly for its high quality standards in all they do. This does not end with the quality of the coffee and its processing, or with the quality of the environment with all its sustainable implications, but extends to the quality of life of those that live in the estate.

• Housing
• On-site medical clinic
• Sponsored baseball teams
• Schooling
• Hosting of social events
• Christmas party
• On-site convenience store
• Training and conferences

Appellation

What makes this coffee the highest quality?

Selva Negra Estate Coffee is grown at a high altitude in a shaded environment. This allows the bean to have a slow development cycle which instills an intense and fulfilling flavor to each bean. The coffee is not only 100% Arabica, but more importantly it is grown on a large percentage of Bourbon and Typica coffee trees (which produce higher quality beans than other varieties of coffee trees). The region of Matagalpa, Nicaragua is mountainous with excellent volcanic soil for the coffee growing enjoyment. Finally, the coffee is prepared using an environmentally friendly washing process, which gives the coffee still one more unique quality enhancing aspect.

Environmentally Friendly
Some examples of the many ecological efforts at Selva Negra include:

• Shade Coffee -coffee grows under the shade and protection of centennial indigenous trees that provide the environment for slowly maturing dense flavorful beans.
• Use of coffee by-products - No waste goes to waste at Selva Negra. From the use of the pulp that is used as compost to the honey water waste that is used to produce methane gas.
• Innovative organic weed and pest control - Selva Negra has their own labs where organic weeds and pest controls are developed.

Mill and Processing
The mill used at Selva Negra is designed to work without water. The water is used only to push the coffee beans though the system. After picking, the beans are taken to a receiving tank. Here the water pushes the beans though the tank into the filter (to remove any stones or debris), this water will be piped aside and used again at the end of the mill to push the coffee after the pulp has been removed. The coffee goes from the tank to the filter, to the de-pulping machines, and then to a classifier that will separate first quality from second, lastly the coffee is taken to a concrete fermentation tank. Originally this work was all done with water, meaning that a lot more water was contaminated. This system uses 40 times less water than many other commercial coffee mills.