COSTA RICA AQUIARES ESTATE MARIANA THERMIC

The name Aquiares means “land between rivers” in the Huetar indigenous language,
and Aquiares Estate is commonly referred to as “Aquiares Coffee and Community.” It
is the largest farm in Costa Rica and home to 1,800 people. Although the farm was
founded in 1890, Alfonso Robelo is the man responsible for its transformation a
century later. Alfonso arrived in Costa Rica in the 1980’s seeking refuge from the civil
war in Nicaragua, where he was politically active. When politics soured into violence,
he fled the country to keep his family and himself safe after receiving several threats
against his life. Once in Costa Rica, Alfonso began building the Aquiares community
on the enchanting slopes of the Turrialba volcano, a lush area of forests, rivers, fauna,
and bright flora.

Alfredo challenged the status quo, transforming the relationship between
landowner and farm workers. He brought a visionary approach to Aquiares, a farm
suffering from low prices and instability. Aquiares had more than 200 employee
homes on the farm, but because none owned their home, there was great insecurity
in the workforce. Alfonso saw this as an opportunity to strengthen the company by
having people feel pride in the coffee they produce. He evolved the farm into a small
town where workers purchased their own homes. Today, Aquiares remains a model
of sustainable agriculture.

Nowadays Alfonso’s son, Diego, manages the farm. Under his lead, the farm has
taken a fresh approach to specialty coffee and exploring the farm’s potential.
Through excellent agricultural management, embracing new varieties, and
experimenting with processing, Aquiares has become a trailblazer among specialty
coffee producers in Costa Rica and all of Central America.
Aquiares focuses on carbon neutrality and measures its greenhouse gas emissions
to calculate its carbon emissions against its offsets. An agent verified under the
International Panel on Climate Change norms verifies these calculations and
Aquiares’ carbon measurement and emissions reduction are part of Costa Rica’s
Nationally Appropriate Mitigation Action. In addition to capturing carbon, the farm’s
protected biological corridors have long ensured the wellbeing of local animals and
plants. Aquiares also welcomes researchers from around the world to conduct
agricultural and environmental studies on their land. Projects have included
investigating the benefits of agroforestry on soil health and observing the diverse
bird and wildlife species that thrive in an agroecological environment.
Aquiares is an example of innovation and perseverance whose benefits extend
beyond the farm and workers and serve as a model for sustainable, equitable
production for the broader coffee industry. The lots selected by Ally Coffee from
Aquiares represent our shared commitment to sustainability, equity, and innovation.

Mariana is an F1 hybrid cultivar closely related to Starmaya. Mariana originates from a cross between IAPAR 59 and a male-sterile Ethiopian landrace variety, and is one of the first F1 hybrids in the world to be propagated by seed rather than through tissue cloning. 

This lot of Mariana underwent thermic Fermentation. This process consists of collecting fully ripe cherries and separating the floaters to retain only the densest fruit. The selected cherries are wrapped in heat-capturing heavy-duty plastic and sealed to create an anoxic environment. These sealed cylinders are then placed inside greenhouses, where solar energy increases the temperature and promotes a thermophilic fermentation that lasts a minimum of three days. After fermentation, the cherries are sun-dried for 15 days and stored in sealed bags for three months before milling. 

Aquiares Estate is meticulous and creative in how they approach their farming and processing. In the thermic fermentation process, solar energy is utilized to energize the fermentation of the natural sugars. The result is a juicy and sweet coffee with notes of pineapple, mango, and cherry.