Coffee Processing Facility (Beneficio)

Aquiares has its own coffee processing facility, the beneficio. We process only Aquiares coffee, allowing for excellent quality control and assuring consistent quality. The beneficio is the first in the country to be registered with the Costa Rican Coffee Institute (ICAFE). We carefully monitor the cleaning and drying of the red beans.

Processing of the Coffee Berry in the Beneficio: From Cherry to Bag

The coffee harvest is over seen closely to ensure that fully ripe beans delivered to the beneficio. There, the hand-picked coffee beans, called the cherries, pass trough machines to remove the soft outer skin by means of friction. The beans are then washed in fermentation tanks to remove the mucilage that covers the de-hulled bean. The clean beans next pass through pre-driers and driers to lower the humidity of the coffee to 12%. This process is done in ovens fuelled by coffee wood (leña) obtained from renovated portions of the coffee plantation. The beans rest for several weeks in climate controlled silos. Moving to the next stage, the dried beans are peeled to remove the skin or parchment (pergamino). Impurities and skin are blown off. The beans are finally sorted by size with screens, by density with vibrating tables, and electronically to eliminate the beans that do not have the appropriate colour.

Aquiares produces four qualities of washed Arabica coffee for export

1) Aquiares Estate: This is the best coffee of the Atlantic region of Costa Rica. It is selected only from the high altitude section of the farm, over 3,300 feet (1,000 meters) above sea level, and from the middle of the harvesting season (November to January). The beans are hard, heavy and quite big (90% over screen size 16), without defects. Aquiares reliably produces about 7,000 bags of 69 kilos of this quality each year.

2) Aquiares European Preparation: This is selected from coffee picked throughout the entire farm, from October to February. The beans have good hardness, weight and large size (85% over screen size 16) with less than 1% defects. Aquiares produces about 3,000 bags of this quality yearly.

3) Aquiares American Preparation:This coffee is selected from beans picked from the entire farm throughout the harvest. The beans have good hardness and weight, and are more normal in size, still with few defects. Aquiares produces about 2,500 bags of this quality yearly.

4) Aquiares Seconds:This is coffee picked through the entire harvest and from the whole farm, with regular hardness, weight and size and some defects. Aquiares produces about 1,750 bags of this quality yearly.

Technical characteristics of the coffee

Type: Washed Arabic coffee. Denomination: SHB (Strictly Hard Bean)- Zona Norte. An analysis made in Switzerland in 2002 obtained the followings results: - Weight lost after roasting = 16.4% - Bean size = large and extra large. - Color = green blue. - Preparation = excellent. - Roast = fine. - Cup test = very good body, very good light acidity, very good aromatic flavor. - Defects in 7 cups = clean uniform cups, no defects found.