Coffee category: Bright
Process: Natural
What to expect: This coffee isn't as bright and fruity as some of our other coffees in our bright category but it is still a great coffee for those who enjoy fruity tasting notes. Expect notes of stone fruit and tangerine as it cools and a drier but sweet cinnamon body.
Producer: Aguilera Brothers Micromill
Region: Los Robles de Naranjo, West Valley
Altitude: 1,400-1,650m above sea level
Varietals: Sarchimor (T5296)
Aguilera Brothers Micromill
The Aguilera Brothers are a set of Cup of Excellence–winning siblings who carry on their long-time family tradition by working together to plant, pick, and process coffees from their combined 60 hectares of farmland. Their father was one of the first to plant coffee in this area in the 1940s. The 12 Aguilera brothers and sisters divide the work among themselves, with two of the brothers, Felipe and Erasmo, overseeing most of the mill operation as well as the drying areas. There are about 20 varieties sprinkled throughout the family’s primary crop of Villa Sarchi, including Gesha and various different strains of the highly productive and disease-resistant hybrid family of Catimors. (Caturra x Timor Hybrid.)
The family typically hires around 40–100 pickers from the same families every year, depending on the size of the harvest, and Erasmo describes a unique approach to paying the pickers: The Aguileras pay higher prices for green cherry than they do for buckets of red, as a way of incentivizing the pickers to do an exquisite sort when they bring their cherry to be weighed. Because there are areas of the farms that are remote enough that they can’t be accessed as easily or repeatedly, Erasmo and his brothers know they would have fewer chances to do immediate selective picking for the ripest fruit. This way, the pickers make a better wage, and the sorting is done with care and attention so only the best cherry makes it to the mill.
The Aguileras do some of their drying on tarps that are laid out along one side of a large field below their micromill, where the coffee shares space with a soccer field that the family has built for use by the pickers as well as the local community and school groups. They are very active in the community and their family spirit extends beyond the farms and the mill.Costa Rica
As the first Central American country to fully establish a coffee industry, the history of coffee in Costa Rica is long and full of great economic significance. Coffee was planted in Costa Rica in the late 1700s but it was not until the 1820s that coffee became a major agricultural export for the country. In 1846, national output was greatly increased by the completion of a main road to Puntarenas, allowing farmers to more readily bring their coffee from their farms to market in oxcarts—which remained the way most small farmers transported their coffee until the 1920s.
In 1933, the national coffee association, Icafe (Instituto del Café de Costa Rica), was established as an NGO designed to assist with the agricultural and commercial development of the Costa Rican coffee market. It is funded by a 1.5% export tax on all Costa Rican coffee, which contributes to the organization’s $7 million budget, used for scientific research into Arabica genetics and biology, plant pathology, soil and water analysis, and oversight of the national coffee industry. Among other things, Icafe exists to guarantee that contract terms for Costa Rican coffee ensure the farmer receives 80% of the FOB price (“free on board,” the point at which the ownership and price risks are transferred from the farmer/seller to the buyer).
Though Costa Rica contributes less than 1% of the world’s coffee production, it has a strong reputation for producing relatively good, if often mild quality. One way that Costa Rica has hoped to differentiate itself among coffee-growing nations is through the diversity of profiles in its growing regions, despite the country’s relatively small geographical size. Tarrazú might be the most famous of the regions: Its high altitudes contribute to its coffees’ crisp acidity. West Valley—known for its high percentage of Cup of Excellence winners—grows an abundance of both the Costa Rica–specific varieties Villa Sarchi and Villa Lobos, as well as some of the more “experimental” varieties that have come here, such as SL-28 and Gesha. Tres Ríos coffee has a reputation for a smooth, milder profile—perhaps more “easy drinking” with toffee sweetness and soft citrus than the more complex or dynamic Costas available. Central Valley has some of the most distinct weather patterns in the country, with well-defined wet and dry seasons: We have found some of the best natural processed coffees in this region.
In recent years, coffee producers have become increasingly interested in using variety selection as another way to stand out in the competitive market: SL-28 and Gesha are becoming more common, and local varieties like Villa Sarchi (a dwarf Bourbon mutation found near the town of Sarchi) and Venesia (a Caturra mutation).
