Cup Characteristics: This should be considered a "classic" cup. It has great body, clean flavor, and balance. This Selva Negra contains chocolate, lemon, plum and honey undertones and it's french roast brings out a rich caramel aroma and sweet dark chocolate, citrus-like acidity. This coffee is Rainforest Alliance Certified, Sun Dried, Shade Grown, Washed, Bird Friendly, and Organically Grown. This is truly the best of the best!

La Hammonia Farm, growers of Selva Negra Estate Coffee, is located in the highlands of Matagalpa, Nicaragua. This farm goes through an extraordinary effort to ensure you receive the highest quality cup of coffee that you can be proud of consuming. This estate is continually improving their processes and searching for the most ecological means of producing coffee as well as improving the quality of life for all who live there.

Allow us to introduce to you 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.

Selva Negra's history is in many ways the history of the coffee in Nicaragua altogether. In the 1880s, 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.

The town of Matagalpa is shown from above (right). 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 environment-friendly washing process, which gives the coffee still one more unique quality enhancing aspect.

To the right is Heddy Kühl, JavaVino (and Beanealogy) co-owner (co-owner with her husband Steve Franklin), pictured with her mother, Mausi Kühl. Mausi is the Selva Negra Coffee Estate co-owner (co-owner with her husband Eddy) representing the seed part of the equation, and Heddy is the cup side through JavaVino (and Beanealogy). Together, this mother-daughter team is able to skip all the middle men who normally take part in the enormous coffee industry. They are the farmer; they handle the dry and wet mill; they are the exporter, importer, broker, roaster and retailer keeping the integrity of their coffee beans all in the family. Offering this true seed-to-cup experience is quite hard, as coffee goes through so many processes and so many hands before reaching us normally, this grower prides itself in being able to offer the entire life cycle of their coffee.