How to Drink Mexican Coffee? Introduction to Mexican Coffee and Its Cultivation History

For professional coffee knowledge exchange and more coffee bean information, please follow Coffee Workshop (WeChat official account: cafe_style)

Mexico: A Premier Coffee Producing Nation

Mexico is one of the world's largest coffee producers and the largest producer of organic coffee, accounting for 60% of world production in 2000. The vast majority of Mexican coffee, especially organic coffee, is grown by small farmers. The southernmost states of Chiapas and Oaxaca are also coincidentally the country's poorest regions, with the highest indigenous populations. Coffee is one of Mexico's most profitable export products, with nearly half a million small farmers and their families relying on the crop for economic survival.

Historical Development of Mexican Coffee

Coffee did not reach Mexico until the late 18th century when the Spanish brought plants from Cuba and the Dominican Republic. Decades later, its commercialization began when German and Italian immigrants moved from Guatemala and other Central American countries. In the 1790s, when the first coffee plantations began to appear in the southeastern state of Veracruz, Spanish colonialism was already deeply entrenched in the region; the Aztec Empire had long been conquered—and devastated by disease—nearly two and a half centuries earlier. Mexico's vast mineral deposits meant that for years, coffee and agriculture took a backseat to mineral exports like gold and silver (and later oil, which is currently the largest contributor to Mexico's economy). Unlike the Caribbean islands or what would later become "banana republics," Mexico's economy was not primarily dependent on agricultural exports.

Although independence from Spain brought some improvements to Mexico's rural population, factionalism, civil wars, and international conflicts with Texas, France, and the United States deprived the country of the stability needed for development or social reform for the next 70 years. However, during this period, coffee cultivation in southern Mexico began to flourish in plantations. Border disputes with Guatemala led to the first extensive land registration in the 1860s. This allowed a few wealthy Europeans to purchase large amounts of previously "unregistered" land and feel secure in investing in nurseries and long-term cultivation. Local landowners and politicians gained a great degree of autonomy, slowly beginning to push small farmers further into the mountains to protect their land, leading to the establishment of many small-scale coffee farms that still exist today.

Post-Revolution Development

Only after the Mexican Revolution did small farmers begin to seriously invest in coffee cultivation. The post-revolution land reform provided thousands of small plots of land to indigenous groups and laborers. Labor laws, such as the 1914 Ley De Obreros, freed many of the county's "serfs" and indentured servants—many of whom worked on coffee plantations—who in turn brought their skills and seedlings back to their communities to cultivate coffee. The rise of the PRI (Institutional Revolutionary Party) in the early 20th century also saw the development of INMECAFE in 1973—the Mexican National Coffee Institute. A somewhat populist and development-minded government viewed coffee cultivation as a valuable contribution to the national economy, not only providing funding for rural social development.

INMECAFE: Supporting Small Farmers

INMECAFE was developed to support coffee cultivation by small farmers. The organization provided farmers with technical assistance and credit, guaranteed purchases, provided transportation to market, and worked with the ICA to sell coffee on the international market. (The ICA was a London-based cooperation of coffee-producing and consuming countries aimed at stabilizing the volatile coffee market. Through agreements, quotas, and subsidies, they succeeded for nearly two decades.)

Mexican Coffee Characteristics

A typical refined Mexican coffee is similar to a fine, light white wine—delicate in body, with a pleasant aftertaste and noticeable acidity. If you drink black coffee and enjoy gentle acidic notes, you will appreciate these typical Mexican coffees. However, some Mexican coffees, especially those from the Chiapas region, can even rival the best Guatemalan coffees in complexity.

Organic Certification

Mexico is also the origin of many certified organic-grown coffees. These are typically high-quality coffees certified by various independent monitoring agencies, which can be grown without the use of pesticides, fungicides, herbicides, or other harmful chemicals.

Brewing Recommendations

FrontStreet Coffee suggests pour-over brewing parameters for Mexico coffee:

V60/90°C/1:15/Time two minutes

Important Notice :

前街咖啡 FrontStreet Coffee has moved to new addredd:

FrontStreet Coffee Address: 315,Donghua East Road,GuangZhou

Tel:020 38364473