Esmeralda Mendoza
Esmeralda Mendoza
Tasting Notes: White Grape, Papaya, Caramel
Esmeralda Mendoza cups with notes of white grape, caramel, and papaya, which is exactly the kind of clean, fruit-forward clarity you'd expect from a well-executed washed coffee at this altitude. Behind the cup is a producer who inherited this farm from her mother, raised her son alone, and runs the whole operation herself.
Origin: Nicaragua, Jinotega
Estate: Emeralda Mendoza
Process: Washed
Crop year: 2025
Altitude: 1258 mts
Varietals: Red Catuai
Tasting notes: White Grape, Caramel, Papaya
Importer: Gold Mountain Coffee Growers
The Story Behind The Coffee
Esmeralda Mendoza grew up picking coffee on her family's farm, Los Angeles, in Colombia's Valle del Cauca region. She didn't start school until she was 13, walking three hours each way to get there, and eventually raised her son Jeremias on her own while running the farm, cooking for her brothers, and holding her extended family together. She inherited Los Angeles directly from her mother Victoria, who is also a farmer and member of the Gold Mountain Coffee Growers network, making this a farm with two generations of women at the helm.
Esmeralda is frank about the road that led here: the men in her life have repeatedly fallen short, and she has built something lasting in spite of that. Today she runs the farm independently and is working toward purchasing land for Jeremias so he can carry the work forward. When you drink this coffee, you're drinking something that took a lifetime of that kind of resolve to produce.