Mexico

San Cristobal

Wild ripe fruit liqueur

A rich process-driven lot, with notes of ripe berries and sweet chocolate liqueur.

Grown by a small community of Mayan farmers in the Chiapas region of southern Mexico.

Producer
San Cristobal farmers
Coffee expression
A fruity & rich coffee

Regular price: $28.00
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Sale price: $28.00
incl. vat/tax
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Grown by a small community of Mayan farmers in the Chiapas region of southern Mexico.

Mexico

Cafeólogo

Cafeólogo is a project founded by Jesús Salazar, focussing mainly on indigenous coffee growers in the area around San Cristobal de las Casas in central Chiapas, the southernmost region of Mexico. San Cristobal is located rather close to the border with Guatemala, and is in fact only around 200 km or about a 5 hour drive from San Marcos Huista in Huehuetenango, where we have purchased several coffees in the past.

Starting in 2010, Jesús initially worked with 4 small producers, but soon many producers in the area were curious about the project, and the prices they could be paid for their coffee through their newly found access to the speciality market. To be able to accept so many more farmers into the project, Jesús realised that quality control would be very difficult if each producer was to grow and process their own coffee. So he made it his mission to add value to each group of producer’s work through careful processing, undertaking a Q-processing course and building two community wet mills, Sibactel and San Pedro.

Cafeólogo

San Cristobal

Members of the Cafeólogo team immersed themselves in the communities at San Pedro and Sibactel, learning the local Mayan dialects, understanding each farmer’s practices, their challenges and their needs. They also surveyed some of the more technical aspects of the land here, identifying potential pest and disease problems, and sequencing the varietals they found on each farm. Through this, they were able to present each farmer with a package of agronomic support. In the intervening years, they have built up trust within these groups, and handed over much of the control of the project to them.

Cafeólogo, seeing the value of each farmer’s high quality cherry, pay the same price as for a high quality parchment coffee, so their income is not reduced, but their cost of production and level of risk is. This allows them to focus on the agronomical aspects of coffee production, with support from Cafeólogo on topics such as coffee physiology, nutrition, pests and diseases, organic practices and vitally, their own quality control.

This particular lot is all about processing, with full cherries fermented without oxygen in cool conditions before drying. This leads to a very different expression compared to our other releases this season from Cafeólogo, with ripe fruit and sweet chocolate liqueur character. Often small groups of neighbours, with such small farm sizes, share resources and deliver cherry to the wet mills together. This lot is composed of cherries from Práxedes Castañón, Tomy Tomás, Juan Jacob and Edilio Tomás.

Technical Data

Producer
San Cristobal farmers
Region
Chiapas
Altitude
1600 masl
Varietal
Typica, Bourbon
Process
Natural
Harvest
July 2022

Natural Process

The natural, or dry process, is the traditional process, going back generations. When accomplished in a controlled and careful manner, dry processed coffees can produce flavour experiences not found in wet processed coffees, deep fruits and florals, normally with heavier mouthfeel and lower acidity. The cherries are first sorted, and then laid out on in thin layers (2-6 cm) on raised drying beds. These are almost always used for high quality naturals, as they aid airflow around the coffee as it dries, enabling more even drying.

It is very important that coffees are sorted very carefully early on in the drying process, as all of the cherries quickly turn dark brown, making it impossible to separate under and overripe cherries. The cherries are turned frequently to avoid mold formation or over-fermentation, until they reach a moisture content of below 20%, and the outer cherry layer shrinks and blackens. This process takes between 2 and 4 weeks, depending on weather conditions.