COSTA RICA - AQUIARES ESTATE

Farm: Aquiares Estate

Varietal: F1 Centroamericano

Processing: Natural

Altitude: 1200 to 1400 metres above sea level

Owner: Robelo Family

Town: Aquiares

Region: Turrialba

Aquiares one of Costa Rica's largest and most historic coffee farms, sits high on the fertile slopes of Turrialba Volcano. Producing coffee continuously for over a century, the farm has developed an enduring model for growing high-quality Arabica coffee, protecting a stunning natural setting, and supporting a thriving local community of 1,800 people. Established by British farmers in 1890, Aquiares was one of the first estates to produce and export Costa Rican coffee. In 1971, the farm was purchased by its current owners; three families who have worked together with the farm staff and community to implement a modern model of sustainable agriculture. Today, the Estate is the largest continuous coffee farm in Costa Rica, covering 924 hectares, 80% of which is planted under shade-grown Arabica.

This lot is 100% 'Centroamericano' variety - a hybrid of Rume Sudan and Sarchimor, developed by a variety of different Central American coffee research institutes, that marries high cup quality with high resistance to disease. Aquiares has found the variety very well-suited to the farms high elevation (grown above 1,200 metres in most cases), and as consistently yielding a quality cup. The variety's profile lends itself well to honey and natural processing, which is why the Robelos decided on processing this lot using the natural method. 

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 farms most valuable asset. Pickers hail from the community of Aquiares, nearby towns, and even from the neighbouring countries of Nicaragua and Panama. 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 childrens daycare. The farm sponsors doctors visits for pickers and their families twice a week, where nutritional health advice is 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. 

Aquiares is strongly committed to, and has become an international leader in environmental sustainability. The farm has long seen the connection between agricultural, environmental, and social health. By planting more than 50,000 shade trees, creating natural buffers around streams and water springs, preserving the river valleys as forest, planting along the contour, implementing integrated pest management systems and many other steps. Aquiares has demonstrated how to make ecological ideals a reality. 

Its stringent environmental stewardship enabled the farm to achieve Rainforest Alliance Certification in 2003. In 2012, Aquiares became the first farm in Costa Rica to fulfil the requirements of the Rainforest Alliance Climate Module. This requires adhering to careful standards of greenhouse gas emissions and energy use, which are carefully tracked through each harvest season. This certification demonstrates that the farms low emissions do not meaningfully contribute to climate change. Not only that, but the farm is 100% carbon neutral, and actually carbon negative.