Nicaragua Don Paco Estate

Don Paco went to Nicaragua in 1967 with the goal of growing the best coffee in the country and using it to better the lives of the people living there. The Don Paco Coffee is a 5,000 foot altitude coffee growing deep in the beautiful Matagalpa region, carefully sorted and processed.

If you’re not familiar with fine Nicaraguan coffee, here’s the rundown: it's normal coffee, or what you might call "mild" because there's nothing jumping out at you. It has surprisingly low acidity for a Central American coffee, subtle undertones of creamy walnut, sweet and pleasant flavor, with a faint milk chocolate aftertaste. Its simplicity allows it to be a very approachable coffee, and in roasting it, it is a rather forgiving coffee, lending itself to a variety of roast profiles and levels with good results.

This makes it a fantastic choice for adding flavoring to. Roast the bean just to the end of the 1st cracks, around 400 degrees, and add the flavoring of your choice.

For a single origin brew, choose your personal preference of anywhere from a Full City 407 degrees up to a Full City+ 418

Because it’s a high-altitude washed process coffee, it’s an excellent choice for French Roast, and you can take it a good 50 seconds into rolling second cracks, to around 444 degrees.

Comparing Don Paco to Selva Negra: Don Paco is certified Fair Trade Organic, while Selva Negra chooses not to pay for those certifications. However, Selva Negra is Rain Forest Alliance and Bird Friendly certified. They are both from the Matagalpa region, and they are both high altitude coffees and carefully processed. Don Paco is imported through a brokerage, and Selva Negra is farm-direct. Taste-wise they are extremely similar.