Northern region where coffee plantations took hold in the 19th century. One guide calls its coffee full-bodied, sweet and nutty, with low acidity.
Cibao is the northern and central Dominican region, running from the Atlantic coast to the Cordillera Central. One history guide names its mountain areas, with the central highlands and the southern slopes of the Cordillera Central, as places where coffee plantations flourished. A government catalogue lists Puerto Plata and Espaillat among the provinces planted in the decades after 1860. One trade guide describes Cibao coffee as full-bodied, sweet and nutty with low acidity, and singles out higher-grown Cibao Altura as a better specialty coffee. Altitude and harvest figures are not sourced for the region as a whole.
Field notes
- i
A 1918 account cited by Wikipedia names Moca, Santiago and Bani as the important Dominican coffee areas and says about 66% of the crop left through Puerto Plata.
- ii
Two Cibao growers' groups appear in the government's small-producer catalogue: the Villa Trina coffee growers of Moca and the coffee growers of Jarabacoa.
In the cup, according to guides
- AcidityLessOne trade guide describes Cibao coffee in general as low in acidity and calls it a high-quality but generally undistinguished cup.
- BodyMoreThe same guide calls Cibao coffee full-bodied, sweet and nutty.
Within Cibao
Sources · 4 Every sentence here was checked against a source we read. Taste notes are what guides describe, not promises about your bag. Last revised 2026-11-11. Some details here are less settled than others.
- A Journey Through Time: The Rich History of Coffee in the Dominican Republic · Atilano Coffee
- Catalogo de Pequenos Productores de Cafe Dominicano 2020 · Direccion General de Contrataciones Publicas, Dominican Republic
- Coffee production in the Dominican Republic · Wikipedia
- Dominican Republic Coffee Beans - Espresso & Coffee Guide · Espresso & Coffee Guide