Costa Rica - Aquiares Estate (Anaerobic Flower Culture)

A very unique processing which leads to an intriguing, floral and sweet profile.

Here we have one of those bangers from Costa Rica! It is a coffee from a rare variety and a very unique processing which found its base from the yeast culture of coffee flowers. 

The name Aquiares means 'land between rivers' in the Huetar indigenous language. The family business Aquiares Estate is situated on the slopes of the Turrialba volcano; a lush area of forests, rivers, fauna, and bright flora. Nowadays, Alfonso’s son - Diego - manages the farm. Under his lead, the farm has taken a fresh approach to specialty coffee and explored the farm’s potential. Through excellent agricultural management, embracing new varieties, and experimenting with processing, Aquiares has become a true leader in innovative processing. 

Anaerobic Flower Culture

This coffee contains the Centroamericano H1 is an F1 hybrid variety generated by crossing the Sarchimor T-5296 and a wild Sudan Rume variety. The processing of this coffee is something very special. 

This Flower Culture processing began thanks to a unique characteristic at Aquiares Estate; during harvest, sporadic flowering can occur on the coffee plants due to the influence of Caribbean rains. These coffee flowers contain unique flower-inhabiting yeasts which feed on the nectar of the flowers during the first day of blooming. The team at Aquiares collected a number of these flowers, isolating the wild yeasts and creating a microbial culture to be used in processing this lot of Centroamericano coffee. This culture was added to the fermentation tanks where pulped coffee was sealed and fermented for three days. The pulped, fermented coffee was sun-dried until it reached a 10.5% humidity.

The result of this rare variety and  very unique processing leads to an intriguing, floral and sweet profile. It reminds us of very ripe stone fruits, rich honey and those fresh white coffee flowers.