We are excited to continue our relationship with Aquiares for the fourth year. Thanks to the help of Ally Coffee Importers, we are able to continue sourcing their coffees. 

Alfonso arrived in Costa Rica in the 1980’s seeking refuge from the civil war in Nicaragua, where he was politically active. When politics turned 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 slopes of the Turrialba volcano, a lush area of forests, rivers, fauna, and bright flora that we hope to visit soon! 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.

Nowadays Alfonso’s son, Diego, manages the farm. Under his leadership, the farm has taken a fresh approach to specialty coffee and explored the farm’s potential becoming a trailblazer among specialty coffee producers in Costa Rica.

We've had the pleasure of working together with Diego and Ally's green buyer in Costa Rica, Bram, to select some truly exceptional lots each year. It's a joy to be able to grow our support of them each year.

This coffee represents our shared commitment to sustainability, equity, and innovation. 

Aquiares is situated in the Turialba region of Costa Rica and this Esperanza lot is grown at about 1,200 meters above sea level and processed using the red honey method.

Esperanza is variety unique to Aquiares, which caries not only the name, but the actual hope for tackling climate change over the next decades. Its Sarchimor parent in the hybrid variety brings pest resistance necessary for the future of many coffee plants while the Ethiopian parent brings the flavor to the party.