Aquiares, Diego Robelo

Aquiares is one of Costa Rica’s most historic coffee farms and sits high on the slopes of the Turrialba Volcano, nestled between the Aquiares and Turrialba Rivers. 'Aquiares' literally means 'land between rivers' in the indigenous Hueter language. 

The farm was founded in 1890 by farmers looking to take advantage of the then new built costa rican railroad to the port of Limón. Aquiares is much more than a coffee farm, it's also a community. And there's no boarders between the coffee farm and the village. The coffee company have always took pride in reinvesting in the community. Building roads, schools and helping the workers at the be able to buy their own houses and land. 

Esperanza is an F1 hybrid that is unique to Aquiares. It's a cross between Sarchimor and a wild Ethiopian variety. The variety is specially picked out for it's well suited attributes to Aquiares unique climate. Originally known as L04A05 when it was developed, Aquiares choese the name Esperanza, which translates to hope in English, to indicate the hope that experimental varieties offer for the future of coffee farming in a changing climate.

Diego and his team is always looking for ways to improve their ways to farm and process coffees. And this lot of Esperanza is no different. For years they felt that the flavor of  process took over too much over the true notes of the beans and it's terroir. They decided to do some research and look in to new ways they could dry the coffee to get a more clean and unique flavor for their coffee. 

The fresh cherries are transported to a specially built greenhouse to protect the cherries form UV-light and are put in an open top mechanical dryer. For the first 24h the coffee gets dried in the dryer with out agitation. This is to what they call seal the coffee cherries. To remove moisture from the cherries and concentrate the flavor. After the coffee cherries has bean "sealed" the coffee cherries are put in the plastic bags were it gets to ferment for 72h before being fully dried in the mechanical dryer for 5 days. 

Taste Description:

Tropical fruit, plum, rum rasin, cacao.