ROASTING IN JUNE: NICARAGUA ANGELINA ESTATE
WHERE TRADITION MEETS TERROIR THE MISTY MICROCLIMATE CRAFTED WITH CARE AT EVERY STEP SWEETNESS & COMPLEXITY FRESH FROM THE PEET’S ROASTERY In the roaster, the beans moved quickly toward first crack. But after reducing the heat, the roast rate settled into a slower pace. It took a bit of patience and a little extra heat to achieve the color we were looking for. The popping wasn’t especially loud (aside from one bean in the first batch that decided to make its presence known), but it was steady and reached an obvious consensus. Following clearly audible first and second cracks, we arrived at a lovely dark roast with a warm, wheat-germ nuttiness in the aroma. – John Nicolini and Michael Madden, Roasters
Our June Limited Release is a remarkable single origin coffee, grown on the Angelina Family Estate where tradition, craftsmanship, and stewardship of the land have shaped every harvest for generations. From the cool mists of Jinotega to the careful hands that oversee every step of production, this well-rounded dark roast offers a taste of one of Nicaragua's most celebrated coffee-growing regions.
A FAMILY LEGACY
For more than a century, the Angelina Lopez family has been producing exceptional coffees in the Jinotega region in the north-central highlands of Nicaragua. Doña Angelina is no longer with us, but her legacy continues through her children and grandchildren.
The environment is about as lush as it gets, ringed by mountains and flanked by rainforests that perpetually generate feathery fog. This earns Jinotega the moniker “Ciudad de las Brumas,” or the City of Mists. This mist keeps the climate temperate and moderately cool, allowing the beans to develop more slowly, producing richer and more complex flavor. Only a portion of the Angelina Estate is used for coffee cultivation, with the rest left as pristine rainforest. The estate and its environment are fully interdependent.
The estate stands apart in its hands-on approach to the entire coffee process. Many farms in the region send their pulped beans to mills at lower elevations, where it’s less misty, to dry. Angelina Estate uses the washed method to separate coffee beans from fruit, and does its own drying using large drums called guardiolas, maintaining stricter control throughout the process.
Jinotega beans always delight, and those from Angelina Estate especially so. This dark roasted bean delivers well-rounded sweetness and complexity, with notes of marzipan, white chocolate, and ripe melon. It’s especially suited to pour over, press pot, and drip.
The coffee arrived at our Roastery as beautifully graded gray-green beans, with delicate traces of silver skin and a pleasant, hay-like aroma. For reasons I can’t quite explain, the scent immediately took me back to the very first time I smelled green coffee over 30 years ago.
PEET’S LIMITED RELEASE COFFEES
You might think that a monthly coffee subscription sounds amazing in and of itself, but Peet’s coffee-of-the-month takes it a step further than most. Good things come in small packages, and we only get these coffees in small batches, which is why you can only find them at peets.com and only for a month at a time. They’re special. And while you don’t have to be a Small Batch Coffee subscriber to experience these amazing coffees, their fleeting nature means they can sell out—fast. So subscribing guarantees you get to taste each one of these incredibly special lots.