TECHNICAL DETAILS
Origin: Costa Rica, San Marcos, Tarrazu ( exactly here )
Process: Yellow Honey
Altitude: 1550 masl
Varietal: San Roque
Producer: Aguilera Brothers
Harvest: 2024
Tasting notes: roasted apple, cinnamon, brown sugar
WHY WE LIKE IT
We love this coffee for how well the sweetness and acidity balance. It has a clean, smooth flavor, with bright acidity and an incredibly soft texture.
We find notes of brown sugar , typical of honey-processed coffees. The acidity reminds us of a baked apple with a touch of cinnamon , with that perfect balance of sweetness.
With a medium-light body , it is the perfect coffee to enjoy at any time, perfect both with milk or alone.
RECIPE
For filter:
We use 20 grams of ground coffee and 320 grams of final water at 93C. We make three pours. The first one is 50 gr, we wait 30 seconds and we make two pours of 135 grams in a total time of 3 and a half minutes.
Variables to take into account:
HISTORY
The name Aguilera is one of the first to pop up if you're looking for specialty coffee in Costa Rica. Not only were they part of the group of pioneers of micro-mills across the country, but their high-quality batches have been praised by world-renowned roasters, merchants, and baristas for years.
There really is no secret recipe for their success, except family tradition, hard work and an unwavering passion for what they do and for the quality, which they manage to improve with each harvest.
Like many Costa Rican families, especially in this area, his grandparents were involved in coffee production and were part of the country's development as a producer of quality coffee. Over time, the family was able to acquire some land at the base of the mountains surrounding their town of Los Robles, at about 1300-1500 meters above sea level. At that time, it was considered absurd to plant coffee in that area, as the climate was too cold and extreme for a coffee plantation to thrive. However, Edgar, the father, had the vision to grow coffee on those lands with a recently found variety called Villa Sarchí, originating from the nearby town of Sarchí, which was beginning to be very popular to plant in the area, as it grew quickly, produced high yields and offered good cup quality.
So, about 80 years ago, Edgar planted the farm that is now known as the Tono de los Aguilera lot. It took at least 5 years for this coffee to survive the extreme climate, grow and produce fruit, but today, with climate change, this farm has thrived and produced some of the best micro-lots Costa Rica has ever seen. Edgar started his own family of 12 children and they were all destined to help out on the farm, as was the custom in that time and place. The brothers and sisters grew up on the farm, created a life together out of it, and have managed the farm to what it is today.
Angelina Gonzales Cubero is the mother of 12 children who make up the Aguilera family, renowned for coffee production in Costa Rica. She is the wife of Edgar Aguilera, who, together with his family, founded the tradition of coffee cultivation and processing that has been so successful in the Los Robles region, in the Western Valley of Costa Rica.
Although not mentioned much in the family's stories, her role as the mother of a large family and her influence on the Aguilera legacy is fundamental. The family has made a significant impact on the Costa Rican coffee industry, and Angelina, as the mother of the brothers who manage the farm, is a central figure in the family context.
As was typical for coffee production in Costa Rica until about 10-20 years ago, the family always delivered their berries to the large wet mills in the area and were happy with that model. Mills and cooperatives like CoopeNaranjo, La Eva, and La Meseta would buy the coffee berries from the Aguileras and blend them into regional lots for commercial export. Until Grace Mena, one of the catalysts of the micro-mill revolution in Costa Rica, started her own wet mill nearby and began buying coffee from the Aguileras. At some point, Grace’s mill reached capacity and she noticed that her customers were asking for more and more micro-lots, so she began encouraging producers to build their own micro-mills so they could buy the processed coffee as micro-lots for their customers.
In 2006, the Aguilera family came together and began processing a small amount of their crop. They started with the washed process, three years later they began producing honey-processed coffee, and a couple of years after that, they were drying the naturally processed coffee for their enthusiastic partners. As time went by, the Villa Sarchí that their father had planted and admired began to age, the climate had changed, and coffee rust began to affect the trees. The brothers and sisters had the intuition and support to begin planting new varieties that could improve the cup and withstand the environment for many more years. So they began planting San Roque, which they obtained from a neighboring farm, Hacienda La Luisa; Geisha-M2, which they received from Starbucks’ Hacienda Alsalcia; and F1, provided by iCafe of Costa Rica.
Today, the 12 Aguilera brothers and sisters remain involved in coffee production and have expanded the farm considerably since their father, Edgar, and grandparents started the family tradition. What was once wasteland is now covered by thriving coffee plantations, and the Aguileras have succeeded in cultivating diverse coffee varieties with a focus on quality and sustainability. Their wet mill sets a high standard and is an example of an organized, well-managed operation that is capable of producing expertly processed coffees. They continue to push for quality and harmony with the nature around them, and regularly participate in competitions such as the Cup of Excellence to stay active in the pursuit of excellence.
The lot, called Licho, is named after a neighbor and friend of the Aguilera family, from whom they purchased the farm about a decade ago. Although the plantation had been well cared for by Licho, the current plants had become very old and fragile. The Aguileras took over the farm and replaced the old plantation with Villa Sarchi and San Roque. This lot is located among other farms that the family manages, as well as other neighboring farms, in the hills of Naranjo, one of the best coffee producing areas in Costa Rica.
Legend has it that prolific farmer Tono Barrantes, of Molino Herbazú in the same region, brought back a seed from a trip to Africa. He reproduced it and selected the seeds from what was believed at the time to be SL-28. As the material began to be well received and distributed in Costa Rica, it likely underwent a natural mutation and became what is now known as San Roque, or sometimes referred to as SL28 or Kenia. It is a very large, hardy bush that produces large, knobby cherries, widely distributed along the branches.
PROCESS
This coffee is Yellow Honey processed. The Aguilera Brothers are well known for their honey coffees, being one of the first mills to really commit to this method.
The coffee is measured at the mill and then pulped and mechanically cleaned of most of its mucilage. The parchment is stacked on mesh tarps on a concrete patio and is not moved frequently for the first 2-3 days of drying. After that, the coffee is spread out and moved more regularly. After the first 4-5 days on the patios, the parchment is moved to raised drying beds. The entire drying process takes about 3-4 weeks, depending on the weather.
