Aquiares

About this coffee

For the first time in over five years, we have a new offering from Costa Rica! We’ve been underwhelmed by most of the Costa Rican samples we’ve cupped in recent years, feeling like they didn’t showcase the quality we know the region is capable of. So earlier this year, we headed down there and sourced six super fun and distinctive lots! This is the first of those releases, a fairly new and unique varietal produced by a forward thinking farm, utilizing newer processing techniques. COFFEE DEETS CONTINENT: Central America COUNTRY: Costa Rica REGION: Turrialba VARIETAL: H1 Centroamericano F1 Hybrid FARM: Aquiares Estate FARMER: Diego Robelo PROCESS: Anaerobic Natural ALTITUDE: 1200 masl ABOUT THE FARM Aquiares, means “land between rivers” in the Huetar indigenous language, and Aquiares Estate is commonly referred to as “Aquiares Coffee and Community.” It is Costa Rica’s largest coffee farm and home to more than 1,800 people. Although established in 1890, the farm was transformed a century later when Alfonso Robelo fled the civil war in Nicaragua and began building the Aquiares Estate community on the enchanting slopes of the Turrialba Volcano. Alfonso reimagined the relationship between the farm and its workers, evolving the farm into a small town where workers could purchase their own homes instead of renting them from the estate. That sense of ownership helped build a stronger, more stable workforce and remains central to Aquiares Estate today. Now managed by Alfonso’s son Diego, Aquiares Estate has become one of Central America’s leaders in specialty coffee. Through excellent agricultural management, embracing new varieties, and experimental processing, the farm continues to push quality forward while remaining deeply committed to sustainability, carbon neutrality, and environmental research. ABOUT THE PROCESSING Centroamericano H1 is a modern F1 hybrid created by crossing Sarchimor T-5296 with the wild Sudan Rume variety. Propagated through a tissue culture cloning process, this hybrid combines high yields and rust resistance with an elegant, complex cup profile. After being distributed to coffee producers in Central America over the last decade, the first productive harvests are now available. Aquiares Estate was an early adopter of the variety, and the climate of Turrialba has proven an ideal fit for its cultivation. The high mucilage content of this variety makes it well suited for anaerobic natural processing. After harvest, cherries are floated, washed and sealed whole in stainless steel tanks for a 24 hour anaerobic fermentation driven by the natural microorganisms and yeast present on the coffee cherries. After fermentation, cherries are washed again then slowly dried in the solar dryer.