COSTA RICA - Entre Rios

The Flavour Profile

A smooth, well balanced medium roast coffee with notes of honey, caramel, and plum, rounded by gentle hints of chocolate and walnuts. Medium bodied, naturally sweet and versatile for espresso machine filter or cafetiere.

The Little Details

This coffee comes from the Aquiares Estate farm in Aquiares town in the region of Turrialba in Costa Rica. It's grown 1100 to 1400 metres above sea level and this specific lot underwent Fully Washed process.It's drawn from Obata and Marsellesa varietal coffee beans. 

About the Process

All Aquiares coffee is picked by hand to ensure consistent high quality. Microlots, such as this one, are picked by a special team of skilled harvesters who are paid well above the daily rate for their exceptional skill in picking the ripest cherries at each pass. Each tree is visited up to seven times during the harvest to ensure that only fully red ripe cherries are picked. The skilled hands of the pickers represent the farm’s most valuable asset. Pickers hail from the community of Aquiares, nearby towns, and even from the neighbouring country of Nicaragua. The farm ensures that all workers have a safe work environment and a comfortable place to live. Workers coming from further away can live in on-site housing and use a children’s day-care. The farm sponsors doctors’ visits for pickers and their families twice a week where nutritional health advice is also given. To take better care of its field workers, Aquiares has established first-of-its-kind physical therapy sessions and also a daily warm-up routine of exercise before work. Many pickers return each year, confirming success in providing a secure home in Aquiares.

As coffee cherries come from the field the same day that they are picked, they move into Aquiares’ wet mill. The farm produces fully washed coffees, honey processed coffees and naturals. Washed lots are floated for density (with all floaters being removed) before being pulped using the mill’s Penagos DCV 306 pulper to remove the fruit. Next, the coffee is pulped again using a "Penagos Delva" to remove the mucilage. Before being sent to the Gaurdiolas to dry, Pre-drying is completed in a "Centriflux" machine to remove any excess water. The coffee is then dried for around 32 hours at a low, constant temperature of approximately 45˚C - 55 ˚C in mechanical driers (Gaurdiolas). 2-hour breaks are given to the coffee to ensure consistent drying. Finally, the coffee is rested for a month in large silos to allow humidity and aromas to settle. Finally, the beans return to the dry mill where the parchment is removed, and the beans are sorted by size, weight, density, and colour before they are bagged for export.