Nicaragua: Buenos Aires Maracaturra, Washed

This Maracaturra cultivar selection comes from Cafetalera Finca Buenos Aires based out of the town of Ocotal. The Maracaturra cultivar is a large bean variety of coffee, a cross between Caturra and the so-called "Elephant Bean", Maragogype. It seems to be grown mostly in Nicaragua although I have found nice examples in El Salvador too. Buenos Aires starts 1200 meters above sea level, stretching as high as 1500 meters on the mountain slope. This coffee is wet processed, which means that the whole cherry is mechanically separated from the coffee seed, and then the sticky layer of mucilage is broken down and removed using overnight wet fermentation. This tends to produce higher acidity levels, and often a cleaner, more clear set of cup flavors all around. Maracturra can be tricky to roast due to the enormous bean size requiring a little extra time to develop the inside of the bean. If you have the ability to control heat on your roaster, we've had luck extending the beginning roast leg before 1st crack in order to produce a little more roast consistency from the inside out.