Region :                   Central Valley
Farm :                        Hacienda Sonora
Owner :                   Alberto Guardia
Altitude :                1,300 masL
Process :                  Natural
Variety :                   Caturra
Q Score :                  86.25

Soft acidity, high body, excellent structure.
Notes of cherry, panela, raisin and hazelnut on the finish.

** 30kg Vacuum-Packed **

Coffee Bio:

Hacienda Sonora Estate has been in Alberto’s family for more than a century. In the 1970s when Alberto took over the farm he began planting the majority of the land with coffee and shortly after it became the main source of income.

In 1999 with historical low coffee prices Alberto invested in a Mill to be able to maximize his quality, to do so he became a pioneer in (at the time) very alternative processing techniques such as all kinds of Honey and Natural processes. Alberto also became a living proof of how different varietals can create different level of complexity in the cup.

In 2011, Alberto’s son Diego Joined the operation as co-manager. Diego’s engineering background and scientific approach have contributed to potentiate Alberto’s experience. Nowadays, Sonora has more than 20 different varietals of plants in 80 hectares of coffee (+ 20 hectares of forest reserve) and is known to be a welcoming place for coffee lovers.

Variety:

Hacienda Sonora has separated plots for each of its varietals. It is common practice to keep everything separated and traceable to the roaster’s door. The Caturra varietals are no exception, as it’s picked and processed separately.

Besides having a nice and complex cup, Caturra is one of the first varietals that were planted at Sonora. After working with this varietal for so many years it has become an advantage to predict its behavior through different circumstances. The newer rust-resistant hybrids have some advantages over Caturra but also some weaknesses.Caturra is susceptible to rust, but it has good tolerance towards other diseases and drought.

The combination of positive attributes makes it a varietal that will remain a part of Sonora’s offerings.

Processing:

Hand-picked, floater separation, then the beans were dried inside the fruit (rather than after the fruit has been removed, as is the case with wet-processed or “washed” coffees).

The cherries are dried in black tarp for 12 days using different layers depending on the drying stage (always covered at night). Then the coffee rests for 3 days in the warehouse (at 14% humidity) before getting the final dry on a mechanical dryer (which allows better uniformity) at temperatures that never exceed 35C.

Once the coffee reaches a humidity of 10.5% it rests for 2 Months before being hauled out of the dry husk and then going through weight, screen, density, and color sorting.

Hacienda Sonora  Location: