Los Hermanos Aguilera – Finca Licho, Costa Rica

The arrival of our new lots from Finca Licho is greatly anticipated every year. We first bought from this farm way back in 2007 when it was awarded 4th place in the Cup of Excellence – the very first year the competition ran in Costa Rica. Fast forward eighteen years (everyone at the roastery feeling old now!) and Licho has become a firm favourite with customers and our team alike. We love to celebrate the awesome things that happen when strong relationships are built between producers and roasters. Our partnership with Los Hermanos Aguilera, who produce world-class Costa Rican coffee, is a shining reflection of that ethos.

A Family Affair

The farm is owned and run by Los Hermanos Aguilera. It's often translated as 'The Aguilera Brothers', but everyone is involved, not just the boys! The family of twelve brothers and sisters inherited the business from their parents, who started their coffee-growing career over 60 years ago – their father was one of the first to plant coffee in the area back in the 1940s, when neighbouring farmers warned him it wouldn't grow there. With the help of the third generation, the family work the farm with basically no hired labour except during the harvest. They manage the mill and drying patios, fertilise, prune the coffee trees, and everything in between. They do it all themselves, all year round, and have a reputation for their deep understanding of quality at the farm and mill level.

That 2007 Cup of Excellence placement was a turning point for the family. They used the prize money to build their own micromill – one of the first in the country – which meant they could process their coffee independently rather than selling cherry to the big cooperatives. Their father was initially sceptical, but the results spoke for themselves: suddenly roasters from around the world were visiting, offering feedback, and building direct relationships. It transformed how the family could engage with the specialty coffee market.

The third generation is now carrying the torch. Dylan Aguilera, a Licensed Q Grader, won the Costa Rican Cup Tasters Championship in 2023 and went on to represent his country at the World Championship in Athens. He's since founded Aguilera Coffee Traders to connect roasters directly with his family's coffee. And in a lovely twist, his brother Brandon Aguilera – who grew up on the farm – is now a professional footballer representing Costa Rica internationally, currently playing as a midfielder for Portuguese club Rio Ave. As the family joke goes, the coffee paid for Brandon's first football boots and the bus tickets to get him to training.

The Farm

Situated 1,500 metres above sea level in the region of Naranjo, Finca Licho is in the volcanic Northern Cordiles corridor of the Western Valley – an area famous for its excellent coffee production. Most of the coffee grown here is Villa Sarchi, with Caturra making up around a quarter of production. The rest? A patchwork of more unusual varieties like Pacamara, Geisha, and San Roque that the family experiments with. Villa Sarchi is a Bourbon mutation (similar to Caturra and Pacas) found originally right here in Naranjo. It's a dwarf variety with short internodes and usually higher-yielding production, boasting a very high-quality cup profile – always great to grow local plants as they tend to love the area.

As well as Licho, the family own several farms around the same area, including Toño, Edgar, Chayote, Angelina, and Matilde. Coffee from all these farms is processed at their Aguilera Bros micromill, remaining in the family's control at all times. Below the mill, you'll find a football pitch the family built for the pickers and local community – their family spirit extends well beyond the farms themselves.

Honey Processing

The majority of their coffee gets honey processed. The outer skin and fruit pulp is removed from the seed (bean) of the coffee inside, and it's left to dry with the sticky mucilage still attached. There's a spectrum of honey processes depending on how much fruity material remains – from white honey (least mucilage, closest to washed) through to black honey (most mucilage, closest to natural). The Aguileras typically use lighter honeying methods on coffee from higher altitudes and darker honeying for lower altitudes, based on their understanding of which crops will benefit most from the different attributes each approach brings to the cup.

This method can present some risks during processing – the beans cling together whilst drying, so the coffee needs to be turned regularly to break apart these clusters and prevent over-fermentation. Water is a precious commodity in this area of Naranjo though, so the method suits the location very well. And the Aguileras are well-versed in this technique – they're some of the most skilled honey processors in Costa Rica.

One detail we love: the family pays their pickers higher prices for green cherry than for red. It sounds counterintuitive, but it incentivises an exquisite sort – pickers are rewarded for leaving underripe cherries on the tree rather than bulking up their buckets. It's exactly the kind of quality-first thinking that makes their coffee so consistently excellent.

If you'd like to keep up with the family, give @aguilerabrothers a follow on Instagram!

The Details

• Country: Costa Rica
• Region: Western Valley
• Province: Naranjo
• Farm: Finca Licho
• Producers: Los Hermanos Aguilera
• Varietals: Villa Sarchi, Caturra, Pacamara, Geisha, San Roque
• Farm size: 28 hectares
• Coffee growing area: 9.10 hectares
• Elevation: 1,500 m.a.s.l.