Last month, Ally Coffee’s COO Ricardo Pereira traveled to Costa Rica to visit some of Ally’s producer partners along with Ally’s Central American Green Coffee Buyer, Bram De Hoog. While visiting some of the people, farms, and mills that Ally’s worked with for years now, they were able to find time to go Live on Instagram to highlight the work that was happening at Aquiares, Don Elí, and Juanachute.
Coffee cherries at Aquiares Estate
Aquiares Estate
Diego Robelo, general manager of Aquiares, showed us around the dry mill and shared with us the history of the farm and community on the estate. The farm has adapted a lot since the early 2010’s, growing new varieties like the Centroamericano F1 Hybrid in response to the pest and disease issues that have grown across Costa Rica. Along with these new varieties, Aquiares still grows Caturra as a staple variety for larger volume Washed lots. But, the Caturra from Aquiares is particularly unique in the large proportion of peaberry coffee that it produces. Tune in to the IGTV replay to hear Diego talk about what makes peaberry coffee so special, and the process used in the Aquiares dry mill to separate out these beans for their Caturra Peaberry microlots.
Young coffee plants at Don Elí
Don Elí Micromill
Carlos Montero and his son Jacob showed us around Don Elí micromill as they wrapped up the last bit of their harvest. There were several coffees being fermented and dried when Ricardo and Bram visited, including an Anaerobic Gesha that will be the first ever Cup of Excellence entry from Don Elí. Jacob oversees all of the processing at the mill now and was able to give us an insightful explanation of the more than ten different processes being used for the mill’s wide variety of microlots, including several kinds of Honey, Natural, and Washed coffees. Check out the IGTV replay to see more of what Carlos, Jacob, and all of the team at Don Elí have in store for this year’s crop.
Don Tacho at Juanachute Micromill
Juanachute Micromill
Luis “Don Tacho” Anastasio Castro and his son Luis “Tachito” Anastasio, the current Costa Rica Barista Champion, gave us a tour of Juanachute as many of their coffee trees were just beginning to bloom for next year’s harvest. Tachito began the micromill at Juanachute as a graduation project in 2012, and since then has grown the operation to process ten times the coffee that they processed in the first year. At the wet mill, he also showed us their station for anaerobic fermentation and explained their system for this much sought after process, including the variables and inputs that they measure, and their ongoing experiments as they continue to innovate and learn. Watch the IGTV replay for all of the details about Juanachute and for the beautiful views of the coffee fields in bloom.
Tune In As We Go Live In Colombia!
We’re very excited to have the chance to go live from origin again April 21 & 22, this time from Pitalito, Huila, Colombia! Ricardo Pereira and Ally’s Colombian Green Coffee Buyer, Elena Lokteva, will be taking over our Instagram for a series of Live events with Rodrigo Sanchez, owner of several farms in the area including La Loma, Monteblanco, and Las Nubes, and Elkin Guzman, owner of El Mirador. Tune is as they talk about fermentation, post-harvest processing, milling, and exporting, and finishing with a roundtable chat and Q&A!
Catch all of the details, schedule, Live events, and a special giveaway contest on the Ally Open Instagram account, @ally.open!