Origin guideCentral America
Nicaragua Nicaraguan speciality coffee
Nicaragua grows its coffee in the cool, volcanic mountains of the north, mostly on small family farms. It’s a country that has rebuilt its coffee more than once, and the result is a sweet, balanced cup that’s easy to love.
The field notes
Nicaragua at a glance
- Harvest
October to March
- Production
About 2.6 million 60 kg bags (2025/26)
- Main regions
Jinotega · Matagalpa · Nueva Segovia
- Common varietals
Caturra · Bourbon · Catuaí · Maracaturra · Pacamara · Maragogype
Production figures: USDA Foreign Agricultural Service estimates for 2025/26, published July 2026.
When is it harvested, and how is it processed? See our guide to coffee harvesting and processing.
Chapter 01The story
History of coffee in Nicaragua
Coffee was being grown on a large scale in Nicaragua by the 1850s. The first big plantations sat near Managua, on the Pacific side of the country, before farming spread north into the mountains of Matagalpa, Jinotega and Nueva Segovia.
The government encouraged European settlers, including Germans and Italians, to buy land and plant coffee. By 1870 coffee was Nicaragua’s main export crop, a position it held for around a century.
The northern highlands turned out to be the right place for it. Volcanic soils, forest cover and cooler air at altitude still make this the heart of Nicaraguan coffee today.
Chapter 02Change
Revolution, recovery and cooperatives
The late 20th century was hard on Nicaraguan coffee. The 1979 revolution, the civil war and US trade sanctions that followed meant many farmers had to leave their land. In the 1980s and early 1990s, large estates were also broken up into small plots of a few hectares.
Those smallholders began to join cooperatives, often with support from Fair Trade buyers, which gave them shared mills, technical help and a route to market. Then came Hurricane Mitch in 1998 and a collapse in world coffee prices, when picking coffee could cost more than it sold for.
Quality became the way forward. In 2002 Nicaragua became only the third country to host a Cup of Excellence competition, putting its best small farms in front of buyers around the world.
Chapter 03Today
Coffee in Nicaragua today
Around 44,000 producers grow coffee in Nicaragua, and the great majority farm small plots. Most coffee comes from the north-central departments of Jinotega, Matagalpa and Nueva Segovia, where Nueva Segovia’s higher farms are drawing the most attention for speciality lots.
Nearly all of it is washed, usually on the farm itself, then dried in the sun. Caturra is the most widely planted variety, alongside Bourbon and Catuaí, and Nicaragua is one of the few places you’ll still find the big-beaned Maragogype and its offspring, Maracaturra.
In the cup, Nicaraguan coffee tends to be sweet, balanced and rounded, with moderate acidity and a fuller body. Expect chocolate and stone fruit, sometimes with a hint of ripe orange.
Taste the neighbours
Like Nicaraguan coffee? Try its neighbours
If you like Nicaraguan coffee, Honduras, Costa Rica and Guatemala are a natural next step. They’re grown in similar volcanic highlands, mostly washed, and share the same sweet, balanced Central American character.
