Costa Rica Aquiares Estate
Ripe Pineapple, Dried Mango, Honeydew
Costa Rica Aquiares Estate - 250g / Whole Beans is backordered and will ship as soon as it is back in stock.
Description
Country/Region: Costa Rica/Turrialba
Varietal: Caturra
Processing: Natural
Elevation: 800 - 1400 m.a.s.l.
We Taste: Ripe Pineapple, Dried Mango, Honeydew
Aquiares Estate is one of Costa Rica's most historic coffee farms, sitting on the fertile slopes of Turrialba Volcano. Dating back to 1890, it was one of the first farms to export Costa Rican coffee.
The name 'Aquiares' means 'land between rivers' in Costa Rica's indigenous language, with the farm blessed with a multitude of clean water sources, with natural springs and rivers interlacing the coffee plots. The estate forms a natural corridor for local animals, birds and plants.
Don Alfonso Robelo is the patriarch of one of the families who took over farm management in 1992, making social welfare a priority. The workers of Aquiares Estate see it as more of a community than a farm, and themselves as more of partners than employees, which speaks a lot about the management of the estate.
Don Alfonso's son, Diego, has since followed in his father's footsteps, leading the charge in experimenting with new varieties, and collaborating with World Coffee Research (WCR) and the Costa Rica Coffee Institute (ICAFE). This includes an experimental garden for Central American Coffee varieties for WCR.
All coffees from Aquiares Estate are picked by hand, with each tree visited up to seven times throughout the harvest, to pick only the ideal ripeness. The cherries are then transported to the mill, where it is floated for density, and immediately moved to the solar dryers. This is a large greenhouse with ceramic floors, where the coffee will dry for 2-3 days.
Thereafter, they are moved to raised beds, also in the greenhouse, to dry for another 10 days. The process finishes with mechanical drying in the Guardiola (a rotary drum dryer) for 1 day. The use of a greenhouse, along with an airflow system circulating dry air of 36°C, increased capacity and reduced variability between lots.
Committed to environmental sustainability, Aquiares Estate has re-planted more than 400,000 coffee trees amongst another 50,000 shade trees. This means better disease-resistance, improved soil quality, and slower coffee fruit maturation resulting in higher cup quality. The stringent environmental stewardship enabled Aquiares to achieve the Rainforest Alliance Certification in 2003.