Costa Rica 🇨🇷 - Hacienda Sonora *Natural*

Costa Rica 🇨🇷 Hacienda Sonora. Dry Process

Hacienda Sonora — West Valley, Costa Rica

Overview

A wild, wine-driven natural from Hacienda Sonora, produced by the Guardia family on their five-generation farm in Costa Rica's West Valley. This lot leans hard into the fermented, fruit-forward character that dry process delivers — big, boozy, and unapologetically funky, with the kind of complexity that anaerobic-coffee fans have come to appreciate.

Origin & Farm Notes

The Guardia family has farmed this land in Alajuela's Central Valley region for more than a century, historically selling their harvest to large mills as was standard practice. That changed in the late 1990s during Costa Rica's micro-mill revolution, when the family built their own small milling operation to take control of quality through export. Now under the management of Diego Guardia, the farm has moved away from more water-intensive processing in favor of honey and dry process methods. Hacienda Sonora sits at 1,300 meters above sea level, planted with a mix of cultivars — this lot is a separation of their F1 hybrid, Centroamericano.

Processing & Quality

Fully dry-processed: whole cherries are laid out to dry rather than de-pulped before drying. That method drives everything distinctive about this coffee — big body, fruit-and-wine character, slightly darker-looking beans.

What to Expect

Fermented fruit and rustic sweetness define this cup — think berry wine, chocolate liqueur, and molasses on the dry fragrance, moving into date sugar, plum wine, and fruit kombucha as it opens up. At City+, expect apricot and peach brandy, a tart raspberry-balsamic edge, and deeply sweet pomegranate molasses, rounding out with plum wine and a tannic black-tea bitterness on the finish. High-intensity and consistently complex across both City and Full City roasts — a great pick for drinkers who love fruit-forward, funky, "wild and woolly" naturals.

More intense and fruit + Process-forward.