Alberto Guardia

Costa Rica has eight recognized coffee-growing regions. Central Valley was the very first producing regions. In fact, it is in 1820 that the first export of coffee to Panama was ever recorded. Central Valley is made up of the three major provinces: San José, Heredia and Alajuela.

This coffee is sourced from Hacienda Sonora, a family-owned farm located in Central Valley.

In the 70’s when Alberto Guardia, the current owner, took over the farm he began planting the majority of the land with coffee and shortly after it became the main source of income. At the end of the 90’s with historical low coffee prices Alberto invested in a Mill to maximize his quality. By doing so, he became a pioneer in very alternative processing techniques, such as Honey and Natural. Today, it has more than 20 different varietals of plants in 80 hectares of coffee, and over 20 hectares of forest reserve.

Hacienda Sonora also strives to have a positive impact on the environment. As such, all the energy consumed by the farm is 100 percent renewable energy that's harvested on the farm and powers the mill and electricity for workers.

The Venecia variety is a natural mutation of Caturra, which was originated in Venecia of San Carlos, Costa Rica. These trees look like a dwarf version of a Caturra tree, and one of its main attributes is that the cherries get ripe very late into the summer. This allows these plots to be picked last; hence reaching a very high brix content that is reflected in the cup profiles of rich, roundly sweet-tart and deep florals that prevail in the long aftertaste.

Country

Costa Rica

Region

Alajuela

Variety

venecia

Altitude

1300 m

Farm

Hacienda Sonora

Producer

Alberto Guardia