Go all the way back to the beginning of coffee’s fair trade movement and you will find Promotora de Desarrollo Cooperativo de Las Segovias (PRODECOOP). Established in 1992, PRODECOOP now has a history of more than 25 years as a model cooperative in the coffee supply chain. PRODECOOP is an umbrella organization by design, meaning its primary purpose is to cover nearly 40 community based cooperatives operating in the department of Esteli, Madriz, and Nueva Segovia, Nicaragua. PRODECOOP focuses on creating access to credit for producers and investing in social programs on a larger and more impactful scale using the collective resources generated from the sale of coffee. Environmental training programs, healthcare initiatives, life insurance, and educational opportunities are just some of the ways PRODECOOP strives to support community based cooperatives and improve the quality of life for coffee producers and their families. PRODECOOP also operates a centrally located dry mill facility and cupping lab where coffee is received, processed and selected for export. Preparing coffee for export is a vital resource for local cooperatives, which ensures traceability and quality control throughout the post harvest process. This particular lot is named after the community cooperative called Cooperativa Multifuncional Héroes y Mártires de Cantagallo R.L. (Cantagallo- the Rooster’s Crow in English), which has 85 producer members who cultivate, harvest and process coffee at farm level micro-mills before delivering dried parchment to PRODECOOP. The consistent quality of Cantagallo year after year is attributable in part to PRODECOOP and in part to the small cooperatives, which provide tailored grassroots organization and commitment for the communities where they operate. Nicaragua has limited highland territory to support specialty production, but the natural resources it does have are formidable and provide the world with an impressive volume of delicate, citrusy profiles. For a majority smallholder coffee producing country with a concentrated growing region, it manages to export 2-3 million bags of coffee a year, more than double that of Costa Rica, its neighbor to the south, and almost as much as both Guatemala and Mexico. However un-like Costa Rica and Guatemala in particular, there is far less availability of microlot or even single estate coffees–the vast majority of farm sizes are small and managed only by immediate family, and infrastructure and competitiveness remains less tailored to small units of coffee here than elsewhere in Central America. Nicaragua’s strength as a coffee producer is its grower associations, whose emphasis on canopy management and democratic systems have remained a stable (and inspiring) source of Rainforest Alliance and Fair Trade Organic coffees–something critical for vulnerable smallholders to maintain through periods of global coffee price lows and the kind of political volatility Nicaragua has seen in the past 30 years, all while global demand has grown more sophisticated. Nicaragua’s northern mountains have a unique ability to produce lip-smackingly citric and floral cups, even in the lower grades. We are constantly impressed by how lemonade-like many of the standard SHG grades can be. While Nicaragua is broadly known for delicate and subtly floral coffees, the higher end certainly boasts the same spectrum of textures and flavors that you find coming from top producers anywhere in Central America. In addition to our long-standard roster of FTOs, we also buy a small selection of honeys and naturals each year that are beloved, and often featured as Crown Jewels.