Costa Rica Aquiares Estate

Farm:  Aquiares Estate

Varietal: Caturra

Processing:  Fully Washed

Altitude:  800m to 1,400 metres above sea level

Owner:  Robelo Family

Town/City:  Aquiares

Region:  Turrialba

Aquiares, one of Costa Rica’s largest and most historic coffee farms, sits high on the fertile slopes of Turrialba Volcano  and is widely considered to be an international leader in environmental sustainability. It maintains forests and diverse flora and fauna and has achieved carbon neutral status, the first coffee farm in Costa Rica to do so. The estate is also respected for its treatment of employees and has recently introduced a programme to grow experimental coffee varietals.
Producing coffee continuously for over a century, the farm has developed an enduring model for growing high quality arabica,  protecting  a  stunning  natural  setting,  and  supporting  a  thriving  local  community  of  1,800  people. Established by British farmers in 1890, Aquiares was one of the first estates to produce and export Costa Rican coffee. In 1971, the farm was purchased by its current owners. Today, the Estate is the  largest  continuous coffee farm in Costa Rica, covering 924 hectares.
Nestled between the Aquiares  and  Turrialba  Rivers, “Aquiares” means “land between rivers” in Costa Rica’s Huetar indigenous  language. The region where  the  farm  is  located  used  to  be  the Centre for this pre-Columbian civilization, and occasionally old artefacts are found among the coffee trees. In fact, Guayabo National Monument, Costa Rica ́s most important indigenous settlement, is  just three miles away.
Coffee plots are interlaced with natural springs and countless streams and rivers, all of which are protected with forested buffer zones. The network of natural corridors throughout  the  farm  connects  the large preserved  forests  in  the  two  river  valleys, providing a healthy environment for the local animals, birds, and plants.
In 1992 when Don Alfonso Robelo took over farm management he made the social welfare of farm workers and the wider community one of his main priorities and started a project to enable workers to own their own houses. In a matter of three years, the town was brought to life, enriched with a deep feeling of security. Aquiares has now become a place where many want to live. The town and the Estate consider themselves to be of the same community rather than one ‘belonging’ to the other.
The farm manages the entire coffee production chain, from seedling production to plant cultivation, harvesting and milling. This ensures that they’re able to meet the highest standards of quality assurance and can guarantee a traceable product.

You can read more about our visit to Aquiares Estate HERE