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One family, three generations on this land

THREE GENERATIONS

Family owned and operated since 1994

Sabio is the #1 independent direct trade specialty coffee producer and exporter in Nicaragua. No grower-owned operation matches our scale. Family-run since the first trees went in the ground: the land and the lab from Enrique Sr., direct trade from Enrique today, and a next generation growing up on the farm.

The Sabio Coffee slopes across the valley, Nicaragua.
The land, held by the same family for three generations
  1. Enrique Sr. First generation Enrique Sr.

    Started farming coffee here in 1994 and grew the operation over two decades, building the family's first processing lab and eventually training his children to manage it.

  2. Enrique and Tania Enrique and Tania Second generation · today Enrique and Tania

    Enrique runs the operation and lab on site in the cloudforest, and sister Tania is the Sales Manager located in Canada.

  3. The next generation Third generation · growing up The next generation

    Enrique's children, growing up on the farm.

The Güegüense, and the name

The Güegüense is the oldest secular theater in the Americas, a Nicaraguan folk play older than the country itself. Its main character is a wise merchant, a sabio, who outwits authority through patience and craft.

Our mark comes from that play. We drew the festival's colors and the geometry of El Macho Ratón, its trickster mule, down into a single head. The name carries the same wit, kept in the family for three generations on this land.

How the mark came to be

  1. The mask The mask El Macho Ratón, the trickster mule
  2. The geometry The geometry Its colors and forms, abstracted
  3. The mark The mark The mule's head, in four colors
The Güegüense danced in the streets, the mask that became our logo.

THE TEAM

The people behind the lots

A small team runs the farms, the lab, and the trade.

  • Enrique

    Second generation · owner

    Enrique

    Runs Sabio today. Sells direct to roasters, no broker in between, and keeps the family's name on every lot.

  • Zuzana

    Operations

    Zuzana

    Keeps the operation moving across our cloudforest farms and a harvest crew of more than a thousand.

  • Navarrete

    Production

    Navarrete

    Oversees production and quality from the trees through the lab.

Women of the Manos de Mujer lot tossing drying coffee on the patio at Sabio Coffee, Nicaragua.

The women's team on the drying patio

WOMEN-OPERATED

Manos de Mujer

One of our farms is run entirely by women. Fifty of them grow, pick, and process the coffee themselves. The lot is certified Manos de Mujer, "hands of women," the mark given to coffee grown and processed start to finish by women. We pay a premium above market for it. It is one part of the operation, and the part we are proudest of.

  • WOMEN-OPERATED 50 women
  • CERTIFICATION Manos de Mujer
  • PRICING Premium above market

The high-elevation slopes at dawn

THE FARMS

Cloudforest farms, three regions

We farm cloudforest properties across Jinotega, Matagalpa, and Nueva Segovia, between 1,200 and 1,650 meters. Each farm has its own soil, shade, and microclimate, which is why a single harvest can give a roaster several distinct profiles.

Everything is processed at our own lab. Drying patios, raised beds for honey and natural lots, and a cupping room where we score every microlot before it ships.

  • REGIONS Jinotega, Matagalpa, Nueva Segovia
  • ELEVATION 1,200 to 1,650 masl
  • PROCESSING Washed, Honey, Natural

WHERE IT GROWS

The farm zone, in relief

A contour map of the Matagalpa highlands where Sabio grows, drawn from satellite elevation data. Hover or tap a farm to see what it grows.

Matagalpa

La Aurora

The home farm, pinned from its real coordinates.

Elevation
1,350 masl
Varieties
Parainema
Harvest
December–March
See this farm's lots

Field notes

More from origin

Guides and dispatches from the farm and the lab, written for the people who buy our coffee.

All field notes