El Árbol is located in Dipilto, a region in northern Nicaragua. This region became
famous when Dipilto farmers won the prestigious competition Cup of Excellence year
after year. The climate and altitude in Dipilto has the best conditions in Nicaragua for
a great cup of coffee, if picked ripe and carefully treated after harvest.
El Árbol is unlike most other coffee farms, not passed down from generation to generation of coffee farmers. Unique for El Árbol is that the farm is run and owned by a group of friends in the coffee business, and Per Nordby was one of them.
Per says: ”My friends and I bought the farm 2015 with the ambition to change the coffee chain and experiment with post harvest processing steps like drying and fermentation.” Now the farm is run and owned by Claudia Lovo and Sasa Sestic.
The altitude on El Árbol is 1150-1300 meters, a decent altitude but not enough to get
the really cold nights that give a high complexity in the cup. This is why El Árbol
focuses on getting the highest possible quality from the plants growing on the farm,
while also planting varieties new to the region to evaluate how they taste.
Processing is done on the farm and on Bridazul, a process station that Claudia run with her parter Tim. Bridazul started as a link between farmers and buyers - providing service for both sides. Farmers put their coffee cherries in the hand of Bridazul that take care of process and quality control without taking over the ownership for the coffee.