Diego Robelo is a renowned producer whose family have co-owned Aquiares Estate in Costa Rica since the 1970s. We’ve been working with Diego off and on since 2017, and we’re delighted to once again be showcasing one of his coffees, the delicious Aquiares Natural.
More Than a Coffee Farm
Sitting high on the fertile slopes of the active Turrialba volcano in central Costa Rica, Aquiares has been growing coffee since the 1890s. Diego’s father Alfonso bought the estate in 1971 alongside two other families, and took over management in 1992 with the aim of revitalising a struggling farm.
Over the decades the farm has grown to become something akin to a small town, with Diego now the general manager. At more than 800 hectares, Aquiares is very large by Costa Rican standards. In fact, it is the largest single coffee estate in the country.
Where once the farm owned the worker accommodation, Alfonso began a process by which workers could purchase their own homes, and there is also a church, school, workshops, general store, and even a specialty coffee shop within the farm’s boundaries.
Today, some 2,000 people live within the farm community, working on the farm itself or employed as teachers or doctors in the surrounding area. The on-site day care and school enable seasonal workers to bring their children with them when they come to pick coffee during the harvest season. In addition to higher pay and better living conditions, Aquiares sponsors doctor’s visits for seasonal workers and their families, and holds physical therapy sessions as well as daily warm-up exercise routines before harvesting begins.
Although sustainability has always been a key part of Aquiares’ model, since taking over management of the farm, Diego has pushed things even further. The name Aquiares means “land between rivers” in the Huetar indigenous language, and a quarter of the farm’s land is dedicated to conservation. Diego's team has planted 50,000 shade trees throughout the farm, with 76 different native tree species present.
Since 2015, Aquiares has been certified carbon neutral, and in some years it is able to capture and store more carbon than it emits, making it carbon negative. To do this, among other things the team utilises organic fertiliser made from coffee waste, and carefully returns nutrients and organic matter to the earth to encourage soil health.
Diego is also a big believer in innovation, and Aquiares is home to a research station that has collaborated with international scientists for studies of both coffee and climate. And fun fact: Diego has actually visited Aberfeldy before, in 2017. He even gamefully agreed to climb Schiehallion with Glen Lyon’s Jamie on a cold February day!
A Fruity and Sweet Coffee
The Aquiares Natural is a direct trade coffee, sourced in close collaboration with Diego and his team. It is a relatively new hybrid cultivar, called Centroamericano, a cross between two genetically distinct strands of Arabica. One is T5296, which is itself a cross between Timor Hybrid and Villa Sarchi, and is resistant to coffee leaf rust, and the other is an Ethiopian landrace variety called Rume Sudan. (Landrace is the umbrella term given to the thousands of wild varieties that grow in coffee’s birthplace.)
Centroamericano, as the name suggests, is currently only available to farmers in Central America. As well as being resistant to coffee leaf rust—a disease that has decimated coffee production worldwide over the past decades—Centroamericano is also known as a high-yielding and high-quality variety.
All coffee from Aquiares is hand-picked, and the farm pays well above average to ensure that workers choose only the ripest cherries. The coffee was dried on raised African beds before being finished off using mechanical dryers. Attention to detail is a key part of the Aquiares approach, resulting in a coffee that is fruity and sweet, with notes of plum and tiramisu. Delicious!
