Hacienda Sonora (250 Grams)

This lot of Centroamericano H1 coffee underwent Natural processing at Hacienda Sonora’s micromill. The Natural process at Sonora is unique in that it completely omits the use of raised drying beds. As part of Sonora’s focus on scalability and efficiency, combined with rigid cupping sessions, Diego found the best quality in drying the coffee cherries on large black sheets made of braided plastic threads known as zaran. 

Harvested cherries are first floated with fresh spring water to sort out any defects or impurities that come from the fields. The zaran is laid out on short cut grass fields and coffee cherries are spread out in thin layers. Cherries enjoy direct sunlight from the morning into the afternoon. At the end of each day, the large sheets of zaran are rolled up with a tractor and stacked as a pyramid overnight.

Drying takes around two weeks to reach 14% humidity, at which point the coffee is stored in Sonora’s warehouse to rest. Shortly before going through the on-site dry mill, the drying process is finished in dryers known as “guardiolas.” The coffee is finished and prepared for export in Sonora’s dry mill, where it is rigorously sorted for screen size, density, and color using the latest optical technologies.