Dylan Aguilera (Finca Matilde)

Description

Matilde – Costa Rica Yeast Inoculated Anaerobic Vic04

Suitable for: Espresso & Filter Brewing
Best As: Espresso (Black) & Filter (Black)

Flavour Description: Orange Wine, Papaya, Banana Leaf, White Peach

Producer: Dylan Aguilera
Farm: Finca Matilde
Region: Naranjos
Variety: VIC-04
Process: Anaerobic Yeast Inoculated Natural

Sourced via: Dylan Aguilera (Direct)

Recommended Rest: For the best tasting brew from this specialty coffee from Costa Rica, we suggest resting it for 21–49 days off roast — we wrote a coffee blog on this here.

Bought more than you can drink at its peak? Our guide to freezing coffee shows how to keep it tasting this good for months.

About This Coffee

Some of you may remember that we featured coffees from Dylan and his brothers last year. We were so impressed by the transparency, care, attention and endless detail that he was willing to share with us that this year, we decided to offer Dylan a contract to provide us a lot more coffee — booking back in February, while our Yellow Honey Milenio was still on the offer list — to get ahead of the current harvest and book some exceptional coffees.

This year, we have worked directly with Dylan to purchase from his farm Finca Matilde, in addition to farms operated by his brothers at Finca Toño, Finca Licho and El Roble. Finca Toño was acquired by the Aguilera family over a decade ago.

They planted cypress trees to create natural fences and windbreaks, facilitating the establishment of the first coffee lots. It took approximately five to six years to develop these initial lots, which ultimately became among the best farms for the Aguilera family, propelling them into the Cup of Excellence with their Geisha, San Roque, and VIC-04 varietals.

Variety: VIC-04

VIC-04 is an exceptionally rare cultivar, fairly new, and one that we had not encountered until receiving samples from Dylan and the Aguilera team. From what we initially understand, VIC-04 is only found in Costa Rica and was developed by ICAFE in Costa Rica. Describing it correctly would be to use the term “hybrid-cultivar,” delineating from cross-breeding of various Centroamericano and H1 hybrids. Although not much is known about the variety itself, it’s recently acclaimed for yielding a voluptuous body, forest-fruit acidity and high sweetness.

Process: Anaerobic Yeast Inoculated Natural

This lot is processed experimentally as part of a yeast inoculation, where selected yeasts supplant wild microorganisms to yield greater control over the fermentation. Dylan also won the 2023 Cup Tasters Championship in Costa Rica — as any competitor will know, this is one of the hardest disciplines to master.

Brewing & Rest

Best Uses

Works beautifully for Espresso (Black) and Filter (Black). Expect clarity, structure and a sweet, fruit-led cup.

Recommended Rest

For optimum results, rest 21–49 days off roast. More on why resting matters in our guide.

Matilde FAQs

Who produces this coffee?

This lot is produced by Dylan Aguilera at Finca Matilde in Naranjos, Costa Rica. We source directly via Dylan.

What is the VIC-04 variety?

VIC-04 is a rare, Costa Rica–developed hybrid cultivar (via ICAFE) associated with high sweetness, structured acidity and a voluptuous body.

What does “Yeast Inoculated Anaerobic” mean?

Selected yeasts are introduced to guide fermentation (in anaerobic conditions), supplanting wild microbes and giving more control over flavour development.

How should I brew this?

Personally, I prefer brewing this particular coffee as a filter coffee. I have a big preference for using the Orea V4, I think it's one of the best brew methods out there for getting the maximum amount of flavour and acidity out of your brew, but other brew methods work also. If you are struggling with your brew recipe, check out our blog here, which features many tried and tested recipes from some of the world's top coffee brewers.

This coffee is suitable to also use for espresso brewing, but I would suggest running a slightly longer shot to compensate for the light roast level. Something like 18g dose to a 42g yield should put you in a very good position to make small adjustments.

What are the recommended brew methods and rest?

Best as Espresso (Black) and Filter (Black). Rest 21–49 days off roast for optimum balance and sweetness. The reason why we suggest allowing this coffee to outgas for longer than other coffees is because:

It's quite dense. Denser coffees take longer to exchange gasses than lower density coffees. Although most of the gasses exchange within the first few days of roasting, brewing while the coffees still contain quite a lot of gasses will impact flavour negatively.

It's roasted very light. Lighter roasted coffees causes the cell structure to remain more intact, which slows the rate at which co2 can exit the coffee bean, prolonging the length you need to rest the coffee.

Responsibly Sourced, Direct Trade

Farm-level relationship with the Aguilera family

Direct sourcing via producer Dylan Aguilera

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Text from Harmony Coffee's listing.