Costa Rica Sonora Villa Sarchi Espresso

Highlights

“Hacienda Sonora sits in Carrillo, Alajuela, in Costa Rica's Central Valley at the foot of Poás volcano, and has been in the Guardia family since Alberto took it over in the 1970s as its fourth coffee generation. Some 100 hectares, 65 of them shade-grown coffee and 35 of native forest reserve, and all of the farm's electricity comes from its own Pelton wheel run off a freshwater stream. Nothing on the farm is wet-processed: every lot is either honey or natural, which saves roughly three litres of water per kilo of coffee. This 700 kg lot is Villa Sarchi, dried in the cherry on the farm's zaran drying cloths. Gringo roasts it longer and hotter than its filter profiles to round off the acidity, which makes it an espresso: yellow berries and caramel up front, a citrus-cola lift, plenty of body and a pleasant bitterness in the finish.”