We love these new co-fermented coffees from our friends at Aquiares. This batch, Juanilama, stood out in tasting for its herbal but very sweet and juicy notes of brown sugar, caramel and pear. It has a medium body and mellow acidity. The aftertaste is extremely fresh.
Aquiares is owned by Diego Robelo and his family, and located on the slopes of the Turrialba volcano at 1400 MASL, it is the largest coffee plantation in a single block in Costa Rica. The land is bisected by several watercourses that connect the two large rivers that surround the farm, the Turrialba and the Aquiares. It is a majestic natural setting where a small pre-Columbian community lived hundreds of years ago and vestiges of which can still be found. This is the eighth consecutive year in which we have worked together and the seventh in which we have made a direct deal.
We negotiate the price directly with Diego and he acts as the exporter, so the commission also stays on the farm. We also import it ourselves, contracting the container directly from Costa Rica to Barcelona.
And this year we are even more proud to collaborate with Aquiares, as they have been certified by the sustainability consultancy Enveritas as a company that complies with the EUDR (European Union Deforestation Regulation).
"We have a great responsibility as coffee producers, not only to our immediate buyers but also to the future generations of Costa Rica," explains their CEO, Diego Robelo. "We are proud to have received this recognition from Enveritas and even more proud to have passed this test in our alliance with NOMAD COFFEE, with whom we have been working for 8 years. We can now guarantee to all our main customers that our coffee is and will continue to be deforestation free".
From NOMAD COFFEE we celebrate with joy the certification of Aquiares, a centenary coffee plantation active since 1890, which is also the largest in Costa Rica to be carbon neutral. But Aquiares' efforts are not limited to this: it has 620 hectares of coffee grown under the shade of trees and 200 other hectares of protected forests. Thanks to its dedication and savoir faire, it now exports to more than 20 countries.
The Central American variety is an F1 hybrid obtained by crossing Sarchimor and Sudan Rumé. It is resistant to diseases such as rust and has a high yield.
Process
Co-fermented: Right after the pandemic, Aquiares courageously embarked on a new segment to produce and extract essential oils from organic and medicinal plants. A women-led department was born and with the construction of an extraction plant, right in the coffee mill, they started extracting oils, but also residual hydrosol in a coffee fermentation inoculum.
The fully ripe cherries are taken to the mill, where the floating cherries are separated. The cherries of optimum quality are then placed inside plastic barrels, hydrolate from the essential oil extraction plant (surplus liquid resulting from the essential oil extraction process used as inoculum) is incorporated and then the tank is sealed. Temperature and pH are checked twice a day, and once a pH of 4.3 is reached (after 1-2 days), the fermentation process is stopped and the coffee is sent to the sun drying area.
Sun drying: 2 days pre-drying on ceramic floor, 10-15 days on raised African beds, temperature range 28°C to 40°C. Final mechanical drying in Guardiola, 1 day.
Stored in GrainPro bags for 6-8 weeks; kept in dry parchment form until shelled before export.
When replicating the recipe, there are different variables that can interfere in the final result of your cup, such as roasting date, conservation of the beans, environment, water, etc. It is important to keep in mind that all these factors may influence and you may have to make small adjustments when replicating this recipe.
Method: V60
Mill: Fellow Ode to Number 5II
Recommended mineral water: Bezoya
We used 17 grams of coffee per 240 grams of water at a temperature of 96º.
We add the water in 2 pours. First pour 60 ml, wait 30 seconds and then pour the rest of the water until we reach 240ml. The total infusion time should be 2:30 minutes, achieving with this recipe a TDS of 1.47% and an extraction percentage of 21.40%.
