All Aquiares coffee is picked by hand to ensure consistent high quality. Microlots, such as this one, are picked by a special team of skilled harvesters who are paid well above the daily rate for their exceptional skill in picking the ripest cherries at each pass. Each tree is visited up to seven times during the harvest to ensure that only fully red ripe cherries are picked. The skilled hands of the pickers represent the farm’s most valuable asset. 

As coffee cherries come from the field the same day that they are picked, they move into Aquiares’ wet mill.  This specific lot underwent the African Washed process, which began with the cherries being floated in water to remove any under or overripe cherries. The cherries are then de-pulped to remove the external fruit. The coffee is next moved to large plastic tanks filled with fresh local spring water. These tanks are then sealed, initiating a slow fermentation that lasts for two days. Once fermentation is complete, the coffee is washed thoroughly and transported to the mechanical dryers.