Nicaragua La Bastilla Natural

A juicy natural-process coffee from Nicaragua with notes of raspberry, blueberry, and milk chocolate.

This coffee comes from La Bastilla Coffee Estates in the highlands of Jinotega, Nicaragua. The farm sits beside the Datanlí–El Diablo Nature Reserve, where varied microclimates, shade trees, volcanic soils, and elevations reaching 1,450 meters create distinct growing conditions across the estate.

La Bastilla was established in 2003 when its owners began restoring two abandoned coffee farms—La Bastilla in Jinotega and Santa Luz in Matagalpa. Since then, the team has replanted the estates with a wide range of coffee varieties and rebuilt the farms’ roads, housing, mills, and processing infrastructure.

One of the things that makes La Bastilla unusual is how much of the work happens at the farm. The team grows, harvests, processes, sorts, cups, stores, mills, and prepares its coffees for export on-site. By separating coffees according to farm section, variety, and process, La Bastilla produces roughly 350 individual micro-lots each season.

For this natural-process lot, the team selects very ripe cherries and dries them slowly with the fruit still intact. Natural processing takes considerably longer than washed processing, so the cherries must be turned and monitored carefully to encourage even drying and prevent spoilage. La Bastilla uses a proprietary two-stage drying method developed to bring out the deep berry and dark-fruit character for which its naturals are known.

La Bastilla’s work also extends beyond coffee production. The estate helped establish a school for children from the farm and surrounding rural communities. What began in 2003 with two teachers and 30 students has grown into a program serving more than 200 students from preschool through secondary school.

In the cup, we taste juicy raspberry and blueberry supported by ripe stone fruit, cane sugar sweetness, and a milk chocolate base.