Nicaragua SHG – raw coffee beans for home roasting

Nicaragua SHG – raw coffee for your own roasting

Nicaragua SHG is a rounded, aromatic, and very versatile raw coffee, which gives you the opportunity to decide for yourself which direction the finished coffee should take through the roasting process.

These are green, unroasted coffee beans that must be roasted before they can be ground and used for regular coffee brewing.

At Brændeholm Risteri, we work with this specific Nicaragua SHG ourselves and roast it in light, medium, and dark profiles. Our experience is that the coffee's fundamentally rounded and aromatic character works well across several roast degrees, while the coffee naturally becomes more powerful and gains more roast character the darker we roast it.

The tasting notes are orange, milk chocolate, and blackcurrant. For raw coffee beans, the tasting notes should be understood as the coffee's flavor potential – the final result depends to a large extent on your own roast profile and the subsequent brewing.

If you want to explore more origins, you can find our entire selection of raw and green coffee beans for home roasting.

What does Nicaragua SHG mean?

SHG stands for Strictly High Grown and denotes coffee grown at high altitude.

The supplier's product data for this Nicaragua SHG specifies a growing altitude of 1,200+ meters above sea level.

This particular coffee is also:

• classified as SHG
• sorted to Screen 17/18
• washed
• harvested in the period November–March

Screen 17/18 describes the size sorting of the green coffee beans.

If you want to better understand the difference between, for example, washed and natural, you can read our page on coffee processing.

Raw coffee profile

Origin: Nicaragua
Product: Raw / green coffee beans
Growing altitude: 1,200+ m.a.s.l.
Classification: SHG – Strictly High Grown
Bean sorting: Screen 17/18
Processing: Washed
Harvest period: November–March
Tasting notes: Orange, milk chocolate, and blackcurrant
Character: Rounded, aromatic, and versatile
Available quantities: 1 kg, 2 kg, 5 kg, and 10 kg
Usage: Home roasting / your own coffee roasting
Roast degree: Determined by you

Our experience roasting Nicaragua SHG

One of the things we particularly like about Nicaragua SHG is its versatility.

We use the same raw coffee ourselves for three different roast profiles. The rounded and aromatic basic character is still recognizable, but the balance changes as the roasting progresses.

Light roast – most light and aromatic

In our light version, we keep the roast character more in the background.

This allows more room for the coffee's aromatic and lighter side and is the profile we choose when we want the least powerful expression of the three.

If you want to taste our interpretation, you can see Nicaragua SHG – light roast.

Medium roast – balance and versatility

In the medium roast, Nicaragua SHG gains more body and power, while still being perceived as rounded and aromatic.

This is the profile we consider the most balanced all-round version – a natural midpoint between the lighter light roast and the more powerful dark roast.

See our Nicaragua SHG – medium roast.

Dark roast – most power and body

The darker we roast Nicaragua SHG, the more powerful and full-bodied we experience the coffee.

In our dark roast version, the roast character gets more room, but the coffee still retains the rounded and aromatic basic profile that makes it so versatile.

You can compare with our Nicaragua SHG – dark roast.

Which roast degree should you choose?

There is no one right roast degree for Nicaragua SHG.

When you buy the beans raw, part of the experience is precisely that you decide the balance between the raw coffee's character and the taste from the roasting.

As a general guideline, you can think:

Lighter roast: more focus on aroma, freshness, and the raw coffee's own character.

Medium roast: more balance between aroma, sweetness, body, and roast character.

Darker roast: more power, body, and distinct roast character.

This is not a fixed roasting recipe. Your coffee roaster, batch size, heat transfer, and other roasting parameters affect the result, so one specific time or temperature cannot be used as a universal recipe across roasting equipment.

If you want to read more about the general differences, you can see our guide to light, medium, and dark roast profiles.

A raw coffee that can be developed in several directions

The supplier's data sheet describes Nicaragua SHG generally as a coffee with a balanced and nuanced profile, medium to full body, and a clean finish.

This harmonizes well with our own experience of the raw coffee as rounded and versatile.

That characteristic is interesting for home roasting because you are not necessarily locked into one specific roast degree or brewing method. We use Nicaragua SHG across three roast degrees ourselves, and in our experience, the finished versions work broadly for different brewing methods.

When you buy it raw, it is you who decides which of these sides you want to highlight.

What do the tasting notes on raw coffee mean?

The tasting notes orange, milk chocolate, and blackcurrant should not be understood as ingredients or as a promise that every roast will taste exactly like that.

They describe the coffee's flavor profile and potential in the finished roasted and brewed coffee.

If you roast the coffee light, for example, the balance between the fruity and aromatic elements can be perceived differently than with a darker roast, where power and roast character get more room.

It is therefore possible to take the same bag of raw Nicaragua SHG, create two different roast profiles, and end up with two coffees that are perceived as distinctly different.

That is precisely one of the exciting things about roasting coffee yourself.

How to get to know the raw coffee

If it is your first time roasting Nicaragua SHG, I would recommend starting with smaller test batches rather than trying to hit a "perfect" profile right away.

Feel free to note your most important observations from the roasting and taste the coffee afterward.

You can, for example, compare a lighter and a more developed profile of the same coffee. In this way, it becomes easier to understand how your roaster and your roast profile affect Nicaragua SHG.

It is best to change a few parameters at a time if the purpose is to learn from the difference between your roasts.

Choose between 1, 2, 5, and 10 kg of raw coffee

Nicaragua SHG can be ordered in four quantities:

• 1 kg
• 2 kg
• 5 kg
• 10 kg

1 kg is a good choice if you want to try the coffee for the first time or work with several small test batches.

2 kg gives more room to repeat roasts and adjust your roast profile without having to buy a large quantity from the start.

5 kg is suitable if you already know the coffee or roast regularly and would like to have the opportunity to experiment with several different profiles.

10 kg is the largest variant and provides a good opportunity to work systematically with the same raw coffee over several roasts.

If you are new to Nicaragua SHG, it can be interesting to use part of the coffee for two different roast profiles and taste them side by side. You can, for example, compare a lighter roast with a more developed profile and experience how the balance between aroma, fruitiness, body, and roast character changes.

If you want to compare with other origins, you can see our entire selection of raw coffee beans for home roasting.

Washed processing

According to the supplier's current product data, this Nicaragua SHG is washed.

With washed processing, the majority of the fruit around the coffee bean is removed before drying. The processing method is one of several factors that can affect the raw coffee's character, along with origin, growing altitude, and subsequent roasting, among other things.

If you want to delve deeper into the process, you can read our guide to coffee processing.

From green coffee bean to three different finished coffees

At Brændeholm Risteri, we don't just sell Nicaragua SHG as raw coffee.

We also work with the coffee ourselves in the roastery and have chosen to offer it in three different roast profiles.

This gives us practical experience with how this specific coffee changes through roasting:

Light → more light and aromatic
Medium → most balanced
Dark → most power and body

Our roast profiles are not the definitive guide on how Nicaragua SHG should be roasted. They are our own interpretations of the raw coffee.

When you buy the beans raw, you get the opportunity to find the profile you prefer yourself.

Raw coffee beans from a coffee roastery on Funen

At Brændeholm Risteri, we work with the coffee beans ourselves at our roastery on Funen.

When you buy raw Nicaragua SHG from us, you therefore get a raw coffee that we also have practical experience roasting ourselves.

This is an important part of this product page: we don't just describe what the supplier's data sheet says about green coffee beans. We can also tell you how we experience the same coffee ourselves through three different roasts.

If you want to explore more raw coffees, you will find them in our selection of raw coffee beans for home roasting.