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One family, three generations in coffee

THREE GENERATIONS

Coffee in the family since the 1940s

Sabio is the #1 independent direct trade specialty coffee producer and exporter in Nicaragua. No grower-owned operation matches our scale.

The Sabio Coffee slopes across the valley, Nicaragua.
The Sabio farm today, in the Matagalpa highlands
  1. Alberto Ferrufino “Didn't have cameras back then” First generation · 1940s Alberto Ferrufino

    Grew Typica and Maragogipe at Finca Fátima in Matagalpa, drying the harvest on raised screens and carrying it to market by mule. Where the family's coffee began.

  2. Enrique Sr. Second generation · 1994 Enrique Sr.

    Raised in coffee on his father's farm, he started his own here in 1994, building the family's first processing lab and training the next generation to run it.

  3. Enrique and Tania Enrique and Tania Third generation · today Enrique and Tania

    Enrique runs the operation and lab on site in the cloudforest. Tania is the Sales Manager and Q Arabica Grader located in Canada.

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.

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

    Third generation · owner

    Enrique

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

  • Zuzana

    Quality & microlots

    Zuzana

    Runs quality across the wet mill, drying, and lab, and oversees all microlot processing and customer relationships.

  • Navarrete

    Production

    Navarrete

    Oversees production from the wet mill through milling.

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