About Finca El Quetzal

The story of “El Quetzal” Estate is a love story. It all started in 1967 when my mom’s dad gave about 300 manzanas (211 acres) of his original land to my father when he completed his biochemistry studies and his doctoral thesis on coffee. My grandfather said to my dad, “Let’s see if it’s true that you know about coffee”. This part of the farm had no trees and it is higher in altitude.

Undoubtedly this was quite a challenge for my dad, but he didn’t want to disappoint his father-in-law and little by little he fell in love with the land full of flora and fauna where you can find various sources of pure water, precious wood trees and eucalyptus. The farm, “El Quetzal”, is located about 1200-1400 meters above sea level and is inside two Natural Reserves called El Arenal and Datanli. Over the years various birds have migrated and it was there where my father saw a Quetzal. From this experience the name of the farm was chosen.

All of my father’s efforts paid off, because the farm became recognized as the most productive estate in the region. Sadly, during the 1979 revolution, the Nicaraguan government deported him for interfering in agricultural policy, because he was an American citizen.

When he managed to return to the farm in 1992, he found it disrupted. My dad had the same desire to rebuild, but this time he wanted to focus more on the quality of his coffee and not so much on the quantity produced.

When my father died in 2007, the estate was left to his wife and children. I entered the roasted coffee industry in 2009 where I have learned about coffee. Today my mother is 86 years old and I would like to help her with the management and optimization of the estate. I also want to know more about the processes involved in this industry to make the farm more transparent and prosperous.

Through the coffee produced in “El Quetzal”, I hope to convey joy, knowledge and pride to my consumers and workers. In the same way, I try to convey the lengthy process it takes to taste Nicaraguan coffee in a cup and raise awareness about the cost and life of a producer and its workers.

Some of the challenges I’m currently facing are: training my buyers and consumers, being more creative and seeing more production opportunities on the farm to generate other income, finding ways to be able to have more permanent employees working year-round on the farm, having a better understanding of the soil and no doubt, another big challenge is to enter the coffee industry as a woman. I want to support and help the workers of the farm to move forward together despite the economic factors affecting our country today. I am an enthusiastic, hard-working woman and eager to continue learning about the coffee industry to help my family and all my loved ones around me at “El Quetzal. ”

Currently, “El Quetzal” grows different coffee varieties of Arabica, some of them are: Caturra, Catimor, Marsellesa, Java and Obata. The farm also has different sources of pure water and a wet Mill where the first process takes place. Outside the farm, about 600 meters above sea level is the Dry Mill where the rest of the process takes place before our coffee is exported.