New Offerings From Costa Rica
Three new offerings from Costa Rica have hit our shelves—and they’re glorious. There is truly something for everybody in this three-piece drop!
The Aquiares Estate Farm was founded in 1890, but it became the operation it is today in the 1980’s by Alfonso Robelo. Alfonso arrived in Costa Rica as a refugee from Nicaragua and transformed the land into a community built up around coffee.
Alfonso challenged the status quo, transforming the relationship between landowner and farm workers. He brought a visionary approach to Aquiares, a farm suffering from prices and instability. Aquiares had more than 200 employee homes on the farm, but because none owned their home, there was great insecurity in the workforce. Alfonso saw this as an opportunity to strengthen the company by having people feel pride in the coffee they produce. He evolved the farm into a small town where workers purchased their own homes. Today, Aquiares remains a model of sustainable agriculture.
Costa Rica | Aquiares estate
[KOH-STUH • REE-KUH • UH-KWEE-AR-ES]
Process: Anaerobic Natural
Elevation: 1,200 masl
Region: Turrialba
Varietal: Centroamericano
Red Wine, Plum, Gummy Bears
Grown and processed on the Aquiares Estate, this farm is the largest in Costa Rica. With a focus on carbon neutrality, wildlife, and equity the Aquiares Estate is an innovator in specialty coffee.
Smooth and sweet with notes of red wine and a syrupy body, this anaerobic process coffee has a beautiful plum finish.
The Centroamericano variety was especially selected for Anaerobic Natural processing because of its high mucilage content. The cherries are floated and washed with fresh water but not depulped. Afterwards, the coffee cherries are placed in a stainless steel tank with a one-way air valve.
Costa Rica | Aquiares
[KOH-STUH • REE-KUH • UH-KWEE-AR-ES]
Process: Red Honey
Elevation: 1,200 masl
Region: Turrialba
Varietal: Centroamericano H1
Raw Sugar, Lemon Custard, Caramel
A clean, bright, and pleasant cup with a sweet finish, offering notes reminiscent of lemon custard and caramel.
Centroamericano H1 is an F1 hybrid variety generated by crossing the Sarchimor T-5296 and a wild Rume Sudan variety. It is reproduced through a tissue culture cloning process called somatic embryogenesis. This cultivar has been distributed among coffee producers in Central America over the last decade and the first productive harvests are now available. Turrialba’s climate is well suited to growing this new variety, and Aquaires is up to the challenge of meeting its complex nutritional needs. This hybrid represents the best of the farm and cupping worlds because it is high-yielding and rust-resistant, and also has a complex, elegant profile.
Honey processing removes the coffee pulp or cherry skin but leaves the sweet mucilage intact on the coffee bean during the drying stage. The descriptor “red” refers to the color of the mucilage as it dries on the coffee beans. This is later hulled off with the parchment during milling, but the sugars have been absorbed into the coffee bean giving greater dimension to the final cup. Red Honey from Aquiares is dried on raised beds for 18–24 days.
COSTA RICA | AQUIARES PEABERRY
[KOH-STUH • REE-KUH • UH-KWEE-AR-ES • PEE-BARE-EE]
Process: Washed
Elevation: 1,200 masl
Region: Turrialba
Varietal: Mixed
Brown Sugar, Cherry, Lime
Juicy sweet peaberry, with a sugary sweetness and lime aftertaste.
Peaberry coffee is named for its pea-like appearance. Most coffee cherries contain two seeds, and Peaberries occur when only one seed, small and round in shape, develops in the cherry. Peaberry coffee from Aquiares is known for its relatively large bean size compared to typical Peaberries. This lot was mechanically washed and dried on raised beds in a solar dryer for 18 to 24 days.
We can’t wait for you to try these new coffees!
Take it easy.
