You can now buy Nicaraguan coffee right here in Brighton. This week Brighton based Nicaraguan Francisco Aguirre from CafeNica has been doing coffee tastings at Infinity Foods and from now on Infinity foods will be selling this coffee. I tasted it and was won over, so met up with Fransisco to discuss why its so great. Here’s what I found.

1 - Great taste

When I first tasted this coffee at The Duke of Yorks screening of Black Gold, I was won over. Whereas a lot of coffee tastes like mud, this is clean and clear, with a non bitter rich flavour. It tastes best when you buy the beans and grind them, but the ground stuff is still great.

I’m not the only one who thinks this, Andrew Kaye of Wave Magazine agrees. Infinity food say ‘Citrusy top notes and bright acidity, aromatic flavours, chocolate tones and a clean and delicate floral finish. It is velvet smooth and clear - not bitter mud!’.

2 - Fairly traded

The coffee is picked by a Nicaraguan co-op who decide the price they will sell the coffee at. Its a fair price they receive, but its outside the fair trade label - meaning they can charge more than the relatively low fair trade price.

3 - Organic and arabica

The coffee is gourmet Arabica quality - grown in shaded areas using purely organic farming methods. This is the best quality coffee you can buy. According to Infinity Foods ‘The bean is classified as Strictly High Grown, Matagalpa Origin (1200-1500 mts high) and is harvested in the Cloud Forest of the Nicaraguan Highlands, Esteli region of Northern Nicaragua.’

4 - Good for the environment

The coffee is imported by boat, not plane, so its environmentally friendly.

The farmers live on self sustainable farms, with clean power generators and their own chickens and livestock for food.

5 - Only available in East Sussex

The coffee is only sold in shops in Brighton and Lewes, so you know your getting an exclusive treat.

If you do live outside East Sussex, you can order the coffee online, from Infinity Foods catalogue.

You can buy it from:

Infinity Foods

North Laines, Brighton and online (click here for map)

Duke of York’s cinema

Preston Circus, Brighton (click here for map)

MamaOshun

109 Dyke Road, Brighton (click here for map)

Barefoot herbs

5 Mount Pleasant, Lewes (Click here for map)

Laportes delicatessen

1 Lansdown Place, Lewes (Click here for map)

May’s General Store

49 Cliffe High Street, Lewes (Click here for map)

Upcoming tasting

Try the coffee for yourself, for free, on December 2nd at Infinity foods.

This entry was posted on Thursday, November 22nd, 2007 at 11:00 pm and is filed under food and drink. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.