Producer: Diego Robelo
Farm: Aquiares Estate
Region: Turrialba
Variety: H1 Centroamericano F1 Hybrid
Process: Honey Anaerobic
Altitude: 1200 masl
Harvested: 2023
Cupping notes: Lemongrass, candied lemon, floral, stonefruits, honey. Creamy, round and smooth.
Transparency - we believe in open and honest communication about our pricing. Here's a breakdown of what we paid for this batch of coffee:
-Coffee: 11.49€/Kg
-Shipping: 1.30€/Kg
-Packaging: 1.50€/bag
Quantity bought: 60 Kg
We have a lasting partnership with Aquiares, and we are always excited to receive, roast and share their coffees with you.
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.
Centroamericano, Aquiares, Costa Rica
Situated on the enchanting slopes of the Turrialba volcano, a lush area of forests, rivers, fauna, and bright flora, the Aquiares farm is the largest specialty farm in Costa Rica and home to 1,800 people, and it is often referred to as “Coffee and Community”.
Although the farm was founded in 1890 by farmers looking to take advantage of Costa Rica's railroad to the port of Limón, Alfonso Robelo is the man responsible for its transformation a century later.Alfonso arrived in Costa Rica in the 1980s seeking refuge from the civil war in Nicaragua, where he was politically active. Once in Costa Rica, Alfonso began building the Aquiares community.
Alfonso challenged the status quo, transforming the relationship between landowners and farmworkers. He brought a visionary approach to Aquiares, a farm suffering from low 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.
Nowadays, Alfonso’s son, Diego, manages the farm. Under his leadership, the farm has taken a fresh approach to specialty coffee and exploring the farm’s potential. Through excellent agricultural management, embracing new varieties, and experimenting with processing, Aquiares has become a trailblazer among specialty coffee producers in Costa Rica and Central America.
Diego also oversees their Carbon Neutral and Rainforest Alliance certifications. Aquiares devotes 80% of its land to growing high-quality coffee and the remaining 20% to conservation. With over a dozen natural springs and nearly 20 kilometres in streams, all protected by buffer zones, Aquiares regularly hosts researchers worldwide who conduct agricultural and environmental studies on their land. As part of Costa Rica’s Nationally Appropriate Mitigation Action, Aquiares farm measures its greenhouse gas emissions and plants trees in designated plots to offset the farm's carbon footprint.Aquiares is an example of innovation and perseverance whose benefits extend beyond the farm and workers and serve as a sustainable, equitable production model for the broader coffee industry.
The lots selected by Ally Coffee from Aquiares represent our shared commitment to sustainability, equity, and innovation.
