Producer: Mario Martin Lovo Sotomayor
Location: Nueva Segovia 
Cultivar: Maracaturra 

Mario bought La Marcella in 2009 the farm is right on the border with Honduras where is separated only by the banks of the Brujil river. Mario has immediately been impressed by the farm’s natural beauty: it has an abundance of pine trees that provide natural shade along guava trees, planted by him, and has three water springs.His farm management is geared at applying sustainable methods and preserving flora and fauna that includes Congo monkeys, quetzal, deers, sparrows, oropendolas, racoons and many others.
The total size of the farm is almost 35 hectares with around 21 dedicated to coffee growing, Mario has planted different varieties, Pacamara, Maracaturra, Caturra, Borbon, Catuai and Catimor.It is managed by Mario and employs 80 to 90 workers throughout the harvest period that normally span between January to April.

Cafetos de Segovia is a dry mill located in Ocotal, right in the middle of a few coffee areas which makes it ideal for producers to deliver the wet parchment the same day as they harvest and process it. The business is a family business owned by a local coffee producers family. Martha and Ana, two sisters manage the business with a whole team. It started 5 years ago when Martha and Ana’s family realised the prices paid for coffee were really low in the region and that the quality they could produce in their own farm was actually pretty good. They then decided to create the dry mill to add value to their product. They have a few farms that they inherited from their dad. Like many properties in the area (north of Nicaragua, border with Honduras) the farms story takes its root in a complex context. In 1975-1979 the Nicaraguan revolution hit the entire country (but was even stronger at the border with Honduras) and their family emigrated to the US for 6 years before coming back to Ocotal. Their house and part of their farms had been taken by force by the government and only the house has been returned to them when they came back. They lost more than 100 manzanas of coffee farm. At the dry mill, they process their own coffee but also the coffee of some relatives and a few non related producers from the area (in total 47 other producers work with Cafetos de Segovia).

During the peak, up to 300 quintales per day can be delivered at the mill. The drying capacity is of 3,000 quintales at one specific time. A new greenhouse has been built this year and this is where they do majority of the experimental lots or more delicate varieties. Most of the coffee is delivered as wet parchment or cherries. 80% of the lots are washed. They usually start the drying in the patio, in the shade for 5-6 days and then in the sun. All patios are covered with some black net so the coffee is not directly on the floor. Shade drying is really needed as the sun hits pretty hard at this lower altitude (less than 900m). They move the naturals every 3-4 hours, pile the coffee at the hottest hours of the day and 30 people in total work at the mill during the season.

La Marcela


Campbell & Syme is a specialty coffee roastery and coffee shop located in and out of London. Our main focus is not to compromise on quality, seasonality & customer service.

La Marcela

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La Marcela