Nicaragua: La Huella, Striped Orange Bourbon

A fresh and vibrant medley of strawberries and passion fruit opens this elegant and complex cup, shifting into black grapes on the aftertaste. As it cools, the fruit sweetness comes to the fore, with delicate hints of orange and nectarine sitting behind those sweet strawberry notes.

This is our second year buying this Nicaraguan coffee, first tasted by chance on a visit to La Huella in 2024. It was love at first sip when Wingo mentioned they had experimentally separated some noticeably striped cherries from the main Orange Bourbon harvest. There wasn't enough for us to buy from that very first tiny picking, but Roland kept chasing to make sure we got some the following year, and we've now been able to buy this unique Washed Striped Orange Bourbon coffee again for 2026.

A Farm In The Clouds

All of the Mierisch family's Nicaraguan coffee farms are spread across the Jinotega and Matagalpa regions in the northwest of the country. They’re dotted on either side of the mountain range that forms the border between the two departments. La Huella sits on the Matagalpa side, to the south.

When Roland travels to visit the farms, he’ll generally see La Huella on the same day as Limoncillo and Mama Mina, as they are close to one another. The journey typically starts at Mama Mina, continues through La Huella (with a stop for fresh tortillas at the wet mill along the way), before heading on to Limoncillo, the largest of the three farms.

La Huella is one of the newest additions to our long relationship with the Mierisch family, having been planted in 2014 in the misty hills of El Arenal.

La Huella mostly grows Java and Red Catuai, with fewer shade trees than many other Mierisch farms. This is due to the overcast microclimate created by the local geography. Foggy clouds linger over the farm for much of the day, effectively doing the same job that shade trees would elsewhere. While most coffee farms need to add canopy cover, La Huella must deliberately keep it sparse or the coffee plants simply don't receive enough light to thrive.

The farm also grows a small collection of exotic coffee varietals, including this Striped Orange Bourbon.

People

The very first Mierisch farm was founded in 1895 by German émigré Ernst Bruno Mierisch Boettiger. He was compensated by the Nicaraguan government for his engineering work on the construction of the Pacific railroad between Masaya and Diriamba with a parcel of land, including a gold mine and a farm he named "Sajonia" (the Spanish spelling of his home region in Germany, Saxony). In 1908 he planted his first coffee tree. Today, Fincas Mierisch operates nine coffee farms in Nicaragua and three in Honduras.

More than 100 years later, the family business is run by his grandson, Dr. Erwin Mierisch Buitrago (third generation), and great-great-grandson Erwin "Wingo" Mierisch Jackman (fifth generation).

Erick Lopez is the Head Agronomist of the Mierisch farms. He started his career at entry level 22 years ago working in the fields. Recognising his talent and commitment, the family promoted him and funded further education, enabling him to progress into his current leadership position. He now oversees much of the practical operation of the farms.

The Fincas Mierisch team includes many employees who have worked with the family for years, and their expertise and dedication make the quality of both the coffee and the service they provide possible.

Processing

The family’s wet mill for La Huella sits right on the edge of the farm, located between La Huella and Mama Mina. This is where coffee harvested from both farms is collected to be cleaned and floated, removing under-ripe, over-ripe, and damaged cherries.

For Washed and Honey coffees, cherries are also depulped here as required. The mill uses state-of-the-art eco-pulpers, which significantly reduce water usage while offering precise control over the amount of mucilage left on the bean, a crucial factor for processing consistency.

All coffees, whether Naturals in cherry or Washed and Honey lots in parchment, are then transported to the separate dry mill a short drive down the hill.

The Don Esteban mill, located at a lower altitude than the farms, serves as the central processing hub for the Mierisch family's farms in the Matagalpa region. Named in honour of the family patriarch, the mill is engineered with precision and flexibility in mind, allowing the team to adapt processing methods to suit each varietal and lot.

Depending on the desired outcome, coffees are either fermented in tiled tanks or dried slowly on covered African-style raised beds, allowing for clean and traceable expressions of origin.

To read all about Washed processing, check out our article here: Washed Processed Coffee Explained

Coffee With Stripes?

While Roland was visiting La Huella in 2024, Wingo mentioned that they appeared to have two different types of Orange Bourbon on the farm. Some fruit displays a uniform colour all over, while others show distinctive tiger-like stripes of pale and dark orange. Normally all of these cherries are processed together, but he wondered whether separating them might reveal a different flavour profile.

He asked the pickers to separate the striped cherries and ended up with a tiny experimental lot of just two kilograms. We cupped it together and were blown away. It was a delicious coffee, reminiscent of strawberry fondant chocolates.

Roland thought it was so good that he immediately asked for the following year's Orange Bourbon crop to be completely separated so that we could buy the striped portion. After a year of gently reminding Wingo about it, we finally secured a single sack of this very special coffee.

After the success of the first crop, we're thrilled to have managed to buy it again this year. There is just one bag, and we've got it.

From conversations with Luis Rodriguez, who helps run Finca San Jose in El Salvador, we know that the Amarangia coffee we buy from them (a mix of Orange and Yellow Bourbon) produces only striped orange cherries rather than solid orange fruit. Other farms produce exclusively solid-orange Orange Bourbon.

So while striped fruit itself is not unique to La Huella, the interesting thing is that both expressions exist side by side on the same farm.

Whether it's technically correct to call this a different varietal remains uncertain. What we can say with confidence is that this coffee tastes distinctly different from the farm's standard Orange Bourbon. We've also cupped the solid-orange selection separately. It's very nice and offers a slightly heavier body than other Bourbons, but it doesn't have quite the same wow factor as the striped version.

We're delighted to have secured this lot. It's a wonderful example of what can happen when you work closely with long-term partners at origin, constantly experimenting and collaborating in pursuit of exceptional coffees.

• Country: Nicaragua
  
• Community: El Arenal
• Region: Matagalpa
  
• Farm: La Huella
  
• Producers: The Mierisch Family
  
• Farm Size: 171 hectares
  
• Coffee Area: 76 hectares
  
• Varietal: Striped Orange Bourbon
  
• Process: Washed
  
• Elevation: 1,315-1,400 m.a.s.l.
  
• Harvest Months: December-March
  
• Diurnal Temperature Cycle: Avg High 21°C, Low 15°C
• Maps: Google Maps / Apple Maps 

Cupping Notes: Strawberry, passion fruit, black grape.

Cup of Excellence Cupping Scores

• Clean Cup: 7/8
  
• Sweetness: 7.5/8
  
• Acidity: 6.5/8
  
• Mouthfeel: 6/8
  
• Flavour: 7/8
  
• Aftertaste: 6.5/8
  
• Balance: 6/8
  
• Overall: 7.5/8
  
• Correction: +36
  
• Total: 90/100

If you'd like to find out more about how we score coffees, make sure to read our blog post “What Do Coffee Cupping Scores Actually Mean?” and if you'd like to try cupping yourself, we've got a guide to that too! What is Coffee Cupping.

Medium - This coffee needs a deft touch - let it run through first and into the gap, but not too far towards second or you'll lose the vibrant fruit sweetness.