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.

This lot of Mariana underwent Thermic Anaerobic Natural processing. Ripe cherries are floated to sort out any defects once they are brought to the mill. The sorted cherries are wrapped in heat-capturing heavy duty plastic which is rolled into cylinders and sealed to create an anaerobic environment for fermentation. The
wrapped cherries are placed inside of the mill’s greenhouse where they are heated by the sun and are fermented for a minimum of 3 days. The fermented cherries are then sun-dried for 15 days prior to being sealed into bags to rest for three months before finally being milled and prepared for export.