Good morning and welcome to today’s review! I’m taking a look at Open Seas Coffee Roasters’ Nicaraguan selection from a lot that has won at least 9 awards this year, so without futher ado, let’s drink!
Other reviews in this series: Colombia Finca Monteblanco | Colombia Tio Conejo Microlot
OPEN SEAS COFFEE ROASTERS NICARAGUA DON FRANCISCO & BLANCA NIEVE
Open Seas Coffee roasters was founded by Bryce Roszell in Stevensville, Maryland (east and across the Chesapeake Bay from Anapolis) about three years ago. Bryce got into coffee while living in Laos and locating Open Seas on an island certainly informed the name of his roastery! I’ve reviewed two Colombian coffees from Open Seas (links above) that were both great, so I’m looking forward to this Nicaraguan selection this morning. Unfortunately, this one appears to have sold out just before I was able to post my review, but Open Seas has two Nicaraguans available right now that I’m sure are both bangers. This is the way it goes sometimes when coffee lots are small and sell fast, so it’s a good problem to have, but I still want to share my thoughts about this coffee and build your confidence in buying coffee from Open Seas Coffee Roasters! Note: Bryce contacted me the day I posted this and informed me they didn’t sell out of this coffee, but are holding some back and will be releasing it again on Thanksgiving as a single origin holiday coffee called Wonderland that will be featured in a custom bag (check out the Finca Monteblanco link above to see the kind of bags they do on the custom side!).
This morning’s coffee is from married couple, Don Francisco and Blance Nieve. Their farm is called El Diamante and they grow high in the mountains above Jinotega, Nicaragua. Don Francisco and Blanca Nieve work with Gold Mountain Coffee Growers in Nicaragua, who provide farming consulting services, help with the best processing and quality control, and import into the USA. I’ve drunk tons of Gold Mountain’s producer’s coffees over the years and the hype is real! This coffee is what Gold Mountain calls “The Reds” and it’s a mix of Red Caturra and Catuai. The beans in the bag are a mix of really big (I was thinking maybe they’re Pacamara, they’re that big) and some pretty small ones, so this is a good lot to see physical differences in different varieties. This coffee apparently scooped up 9 Golden Bean Awards this year across various categories!
I’m using my standard pourover method to prepare this coffee, which is a 1:16 ratio of 22g of coffee to 352g of Third Wave Water in a Trinity Origin dripper with Kalita 155 filter. I use a Knock Aergrind grinder for my pourovers and pulse pour through a Melodrip to minimize agitation of the coffee during brewing. This coffee got a 30 second bloom and a total brew time of 3:40. Open Seas gives us tasting notes of, “Chocolate, gingerbread, baking spice, dried cranberry in a deep sweet cup.”
During brewing I was picking up some raisin notes while in the cup I’m getting more molasses and brown sugar from the aroma. Taking a sip, this is a medium to medium-heavy bodied coffee and it has that deep sweetness and hint of fruit I’ve come to love from many Nicaraguan coffees. The first thing to hit my palate is that brown sugar with a hint of molasses sweetness that anchors the cup. There’s a bit of caramelized sugar here, too, and it gives the coffee a pretty heavy presence on my palate, almost like whole milk or half and half feels. On the brighter side of the cup, there is a healthy amount of malic acidity here, which is associated with fruits like pears and especially apples. I’m getting a bit of red apple fruit in the flavor, too, as well as some raisin and a hint of cherry in the finish, which is a nice combination! With small sips I’m getting mostly what I’ve described, but if I take bigger and more frequent sips I am getting those baking spices mentioned by Open Seas. I don’t get them at all with small sips, so that’s interesting, but gulps bring out a lot of spice notes, particularly nutmeg for me, which sticks around on my palate through the long aftertaste.
This coffee is great! Very inviting, very easy to drink and the flavors work awesome together. This is a top notch coffee from a well-regarded grower and importer, and Open Seas did not mess up the final part of the process, which is the roasting! All three coffees I’ve had from Open Seas were fantastic and I look forward to working more with them in the future, I hope! Make sure you check out the other two coffees from Nicaragua that Open Seas has available right now. They are both from Gold Mountain growers, too, and I’ve had the Karen & Yader before from another roaster and it was excellent. Keep your eyes peeled for this coffee to make its return as Wonderland in a hot new bag in a few weeks!