NOMAD – Central American Natural Anaerobic 250g | Costa Rica

Aquiares is Diego Robelo's family estate on the slopes of the Turrialba volcano in central Costa Rica, with this lot grown between 1,200 and 1,400 metres. NOMAD have bought from the farm for ten consecutive years, nine of them as direct trade: the price is negotiated with Diego himself, so the exporter's cut stays on the farm, and NOMAD ship the coffee on a container that goes straight from Costa Rica to Barcelona. It is a coffee NOMAD rate among the top ten on their menu year after year.

The variety is Centroamericano, an F1 hybrid of Sarchimor T-5296 and Sudan Rume — rust-resistant from the Sarchimor side, with the cup quality of the Ethiopian-derived Sudan Rume.

Here the process is anaerobic natural, and it's a precise one. Ripe cherries are floated to remove the lighter fruit, then sealed into plastic barrels with a liquid inoculum — a starter culture — added. Temperature and pH are checked twice a day, and the fermentation is stopped when the pH reaches 4.3, usually after one to two days. The cherries then pre-dry for two days on ceramic floors before ten to fifteen days on raised African beds at 28–40°C, with a final day in a Guardiola mechanical dryer. The dried cherry rests in GrainPro for six to eight weeks before hulling. Harvest 2026.

NOMAD's notes are cocoa nibs, forest fruits and tamarind. The fragrance is all berries, cherries and cacao nibs; once the water hits it there's grape and tamarind, a velvety body and a winey acidity, finishing on cocoa powder. Their own summary is "complex and wild" — a fruit-driven, fermenty filter coffee that still has a proper chocolate backbone.

This is NOMAD's filter roast of the lot, bag code F.CR.CAN.

Freshly roasted by NOMAD Coffee in Barcelona and imported to the UK by ROAST EDIT Co.