Country: Costa Rica
Region: Poas, Central Valley
Varietal: Sarchimor
Process: Natural
Altitude: 1,300 MASL
Cupping Notes: Strawberry, Dulce de Leche, Honey
Recommended Roast:City to Full City
Good For: Auto Drip, Pour Over, Espresso

Description: Hacienda Sonora Estate has been in Alberto’s family for more than a Century. In the 1970’s 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, in order to do so he became a pioneer in very alternative processing techniques at the time, such as Honeys and Naturals. Also became a living proof of how different varietals could create different level of complexity in the cup. In 2011, Alberto’s son Diego became the co-manager of Hacienda Sonora and has combined his father’s longtime experience with his background in engineering to take an innovative approach and start new projects. Nowadays, Sonora has more than 20 different varietals of plants in 80 hectares of coffee along with 20 hectares of forest reserve.

From Sonora, on Sarchimor:

“World Coffee Research indicates,“Breeders in Portugal began work to create new varieties of coffee that would be resistant to the disease, but also have a compact stature that could be planted more densely. One of the rust-resistant Timor Hybrid plants, called HDT CIFC 832/2, was crossed with compactVilla Sarchi to create hybrid 361 (H361). The hybrid was dubbed “Sarchimor.” It’s important to note that, contrary to common belief, "Sarchimor" is not itself a distinct variety. Instead, it is a group of many different distinct varieties with similar parentage.”

At Hacienda Sonora there has been knowledge of the several varieties that compose the Sarchimor group for years. Hence, after years of experimenting with Sachimores, the team at Sonora has been able to select the best type in terms of cup, yield and rust tolerance. 

Hacienda Sonora’s signature Sarchimor is a beautiful varietal that is enhanced with great farm and milling practices.”

Hacienda Sonora has separated plots for each of its varietals. It is common practice to keep everything separated and identified until the moment of being exported. Coffees are hand-picked, float separated, then the cherries then go to drying. 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.

We have had a long relationship with the Guardia Family, and we’re happy to have such good naturals from them in the warehouse this year. In this Sarchimor we get notes of Black Cherry, Chocolate Brownie, Mango, and Sugarcane.