Costa Rica Aquiares
Founded in 1890, Aquiares is one of Costa Rica’s most historic coffee farms and sits high on the slopes of the Turrialba volcano. Producer Diego Robelo, who took over from his father Alfonso drove the sustainability of the farm. Aquiares is Rainforest Alliance certified, has a proven regenerative agriculture model and was the first coffee farm ever to become carbon neutral certified.
This centroamericano hybrid variety has adapted its Ethiopian genes well to the volcanic soils of Aquiares and the shade of the fields. The coffee was dried on raised African beds before being finished off in the mechanical Guardiola dryers. Our relationship with Diego and Aquiares estate goes back to 2017 when he visited us here in the Scottish Highlands and sportingly climbed Schiehallion with us on one of the coldest days of February.
Tanzania Ngila Estate
In 1992 Vera and Rudolph Meyer bought a run down old coffee farm in Karatu, near Tanzania’s Ngorongoro crater. The farm, which hadn’t been operational in decades, was full of holes, overgrowth, and trees demolished by free-roaming herds of elephants and buffalo.
Vera and Rudolph lovingly brought the farm back to life with the construction of new offices, a wet mill, workshops and an 8 hectare wildlife corridor to preserve the migration paths. Today a year round team of 30 help Vera with the farm which now runs on solar power, uses organic pesticides like tobacco and native wasps, and has been planted with indigenous trees to combat soil erosion and foster reforestation.
Peru Salkantay
In September 2025 we made our second origin trip to Peru to source beans from the Huadquina Cooperative in the remote town of Santa Teresa in the Sacred Valley. The valley winds for around 60km from the ancient Incan city of Cusco into the Andean highlands. It follows the spectacular Urubamba river and is surrounded by jagged peaks that include the fearsome, snow topped mountain Salkantay (6,271m) upon whose slopes this coffee is grown. The area is still deemed sacred by many as it was once at the heart of the Incan empire and is a relatively short distance from the famous Incan ruins at Machu Picchu.
Five producers contributed to this lot all growing coffee above 2000 meters on the slopes of Mt Salkantay. All are members of the 300 member strong Huadquina Co-operative whose offices, mill and warehouse is in the sleepy town of Santa Teresa on the banks of the Rio Urubamba.
The co-operative works with over 300 producers and astonishingly most of them are producing certified organic coffees. The quality of the coffee is very high with some Cup of Excellence winners and many of the lots scoring 86+ including the coffee in this lot. This is our second year sourcing coffee direct from the Huadquina co-operative and hope it will be a relationship that will continue to thrive in the coming years.
