Costa Rica Aquiares Estate — Esperanza | Red Honey

$23.95
Size: 12oz
A remarkably sweet and layered Red Honey Esperanza with syrupy dates, ripe cherry, and the nostalgic sweetness of pineapple upside-down cake.

This Red Honey Esperanza comes to us from Diego Robelo and the renowned Aquiares Estate in Costa Rica's Turrialba region. We've proudly featured Aquiares' African Washed Esperanza for several years, and this unique honey-processed lot offers an entirely new expression of one of our favorite varieties.

Expect an exceptionally sweet yet refined cup with notes of dates, cherry, and pineapple upside-down cake. Rich, fruit-forward sugars are balanced by remarkable clarity, creating a coffee that's vibrant, clean, and beautifully suited for summer brewing.

All online orders ship Mondays and Thursdays.

Pick up orders will be fulfilled on Mondays and Thursdays. Your order will be processed on the next closest fulfillment day and ready for pickup after 5pm the following day (Tuesday or Friday) at your selected location. You’ll receive an email notification once your order is ready for pick up!

Size: 12oz

THE DETAILS —

Dates, Cherry, and Pineapple Upside Down Cake

Red Honey

Turrialba

Diego Robelo, Aquiares Estate

Esperanza

A new expression of Esperanza — layered, honey-sweet, and full of vibrant summer fruit.

ABOUT THE COFFEE

IN FOCUS: Costa Rica Aquiares Estate

Producer & Farm
Aquiares Estate is one of Costa Rica's most innovative coffee producers, continually investing in sustainable farming practices and progressive variety development. Led by Diego Robelo, the estate has become internationally recognized for producing expressive coffees while helping shape the future of specialty coffee through experimentation and research.

Varietal
Esperanza is a rare F1 hybrid created by crossing Sarchimor T-5296 with the wild Ethiopian variety ET-25. Originally known only by its breeding code, Aquiares renamed the variety Esperanza — Spanish for hope — to reflect the promise these resilient, high-quality hybrids offer for the future of coffee farming in a changing climate.

Uniquely adapted to Aquiares' terroir, Esperanza combines excellent cup quality with greater resilience, making it one of the estate's most exciting long-term projects.

Processing
Unlike the African Washed version we've previously offered, this lot undergoes a Red Honey process. After harvest, the outer skin of each cherry is removed while much of the sweet fruit mucilage remains intact during drying. The "red" designation refers to both the amount of mucilage left on the seed and the way it darkens as it slowly dehydrates.

Over 18–24 days on elevated drying beds, sugars from the remaining fruit gradually integrate into the coffee before the parchment and dried mucilage are removed during milling. The result is enhanced sweetness and complexity while preserving remarkable clarity in the cup.

Cup Profile
This Red Honey Esperanza highlights everything that makes the variety so compelling. Notes of dates provide rich, syrupy sweetness, while cherry brings vibrant fruit character. A lingering confectionary quality evokes pineapple upside-down cake, with caramelized sugars and pops of maraschino cherry. Despite its decadent sweetness, the cup remains light, crisp, and exceptionally clean, with beautifully layered complexity from beginning to end.