Costa Rica Hacienda Sonora (by the kg)

Information

Hacienda Sonora Estate has been in Alberto's family for over a century. The micro-mill and surrounding farmlands are all built next to a well-preserved 150-year-old sugar cane factory, giving Sonora a classical feel.  The farm’s area is approximately 100 hectares, which is composed of 65 hectares of shaded and unshaded coffee, and 35 hectares of wild forest. The coffee grows in an environment surrounded by exotic trees and other vegetation, providing great conditions for growing quality cherry, as well as improving the composition of the already naturally rich volcanic soil. 

Producers Alberto and his son Diego Guardia built the small micro mill to be able to have full control of processing and quality and only produce Honey and Natural coffee.

The coffee is harvested by meticulous hand-picking, and floaters are separated. Afterwards, it gets taken to drying patios.  Drying patios in Hacienda Sonora are very different from common practice. They use a special mix of black tarps and black screens on top of the grass. There is never contact between the coffee and grass, but it helps lower the temperature in the beans and slows down the drying process. This lot was sundried for 12 days, then rested for 3 days at the warehouse at 14% moisture content. Finally it was mechanically dried for better uniformity at temperatures that never exceed 35°C. Once the coffee reaches a moisture content of 10.5%, it rests inside the dried cherry for 2 months before it goes through dry milling and sorting. All the sorting is done at Hacienda Sonora, where they have a state-of-the-art dry mill with modern and fine-tune machinery.

This Honey-Natural blend is made up of 50% black honey processed coffee and 50% natural processed coffee. The black honey process involves drying coffee beans with 100% of the mucilage still intact. This blend was developed as an espresso blender or single-origin espresso and nicknamed "red gold" for the velvety crema it produces.