Traceability Sheet
Finca La Picona
Picona Mountain, Dipilto, Nueva Segovia · Nicaragua
7 ha
1,250 – 1,400 m.a.s.l.
Cup of Excellence #2 · 2021
Woman-led
La Picona's Maracaturra anaerobic honey lot earned the second-highest award at Nicaragua's Cup of Excellence 2021 — the country's most prestigious specialty coffee competition. A testament to what altitude, volcanic soil, and obsessive attention to processing can achieve.
Finca La Picona is the only coffee farm on Picona Mountain — a small but remarkable origin where excellence is measured in detail, not in size. Its volcanic soil, naturally rich in phosphorus, nourishes the coffee trees with minimal fertilizer input. Steady mountain winds, consistent shade, and a cool microclimate with distinct day-night temperature swings ensure slow cherry maturation and concentrated sweetness.
Despite its modest 7 hectares, La Picona consistently places among Nicaragua's most celebrated producers. The team experiments with selective fermentation and drying methods that enhance clarity and complexity in every lot — balancing tradition with innovation in a way that feels entirely its own.
Only fully ripe cherries are harvested to ensure maximum sugar content. Underripe, overripe, and defective fruit is removed during sorting.
Cherries are floated in clean water to eliminate impurities and any remaining defects before fermentation.
Whole cherries rest in tanks for 48–72 hours before drying. This short controlled fermentation kick-starts sugar breakdown, building the fruit-forward sweetness and complexity that defines La Picona's natural lots. No additives used.
Days 1–5 (from ~45% humidity): full sun on raised beds at Cafetos de Segovia's dry mill. Remaining days: moved to shaded, well-ventilated areas. Cherries are turned every 30–60 minutes for uniform drying. Temperature and humidity monitored daily.
Once the cherries reach ~12% humidity, the coffee rests for 30 days before milling. This resting period stabilizes the bean and allows the flavors to settle and integrate.
La Picona is a single-mountain origin — there is only one farm on Picona Mountain, which means traceability here is absolute. The GeoJSON boundary file attached to this document maps the exact parcel your coffee came from. Open it in Google Earth, QGIS, or geojson.io and you will see precisely where every cherry was grown.
2 hectares of native forest actively conserved. All coffee grown under full shade. Mineral-rich soil reduces chemical inputs significantly.
Active protection of water sources. Organic certification in progress, reducing chemical dependency season by season.
Woman-led operation. ~40 workers employed annually with fair wages. Annual investment in seasonal housing and facilities.
Nueva Segovia is Nicaragua's highest and most celebrated coffee region — a landscape of steep mountain ridges, forest-covered peaks, and crisp highland air that sits along the Honduran border. Farms here regularly exceed 1,200 metres, and the sharp day-to-night temperature swings that define this altitude are precisely what drives the slow, even cherry maturation that produces dense, complex cups.
Picona Mountain sits at the heart of this landscape — and La Picona is the only farm on it. That singularity of origin is rare anywhere in the coffee world. The phosphorus-rich volcanic soils that cover its slopes need almost no fertilizer input, and the steady mountain winds keep humidity in check, concentrating sugars naturally in every cherry.
Nueva Segovia's farms have earned repeated podium finishes at Nicaragua's Cup of Excellence, and La Picona's #2 finish in 2021 is among the region's most celebrated results — proof of what this unique terroir can achieve in the right hands.
