What is Nayarit Coffee from Mexico's Coffee Region? Introduction to Mexican Coffee Estates

Mexico

Honey-sweet flavor, walnut, marzipan aroma, banana, cocoa and nuts, with a mild aftertaste and a light, smooth texture.

Located in North America, Mexico has a diverse climate and is the world's fourteenth-largest country and the fourth-largest coffee producer, with annual coffee production of about 5 million bags. Most of its coffee comes from nearly 100,000 small-scale farmers, since the large estates that once dominated the industry are now rare. Mexico's coffee yield per hectare is about 630 kilograms. Mexican coffee is said to have been first introduced in the late 18th century, when a Spaniard transplanted coffee trees from the West Indies to Nayarit, in central-western Mexico. Coffee cultivation in Nayarit has exceeded 150 years, with a French immigrant family beginning cultivation in 1860. Coffee here is grown at altitudes of 1,200–1,500 meters. These mountains are mostly volcanic, with soil composed of volcanic ash, and the high altitude and fertile volcanic soil nurture coffee beans with a smooth texture and moderate acidity.

Processing methods: Washed, Natural

Main varieties: Arabica

Coffee Growing Regions

• Chiapas
• Coatepec
• Huatusco
• Orizaba

Excellent Mexican coffee offers a comfortable mouthfeel, a mellow flavor, moderate acidity, gentle refinement and a pleasant aroma. Mexico has 12 major coffee-producing regions, and Nayarit, in the central-west near the Pacific Ocean, is one of them. The coastal windward side of Nayarit is influenced by the northeast monsoon, and with abundant rainfall, fertile volcanic soil and plentiful water, this batch of Nayarit's Mi Cielito estate natural coffee can be processed carefully by the natural method, preserving the most original aroma and flavor of the raw beans.

Mexico is also one of the largest producers of organic certified coffee. For geographical reasons, most of it is sold to the United States. The country's coffee industry began in the 19th century, and mainly Arabica varieties are cultivated. Over two million Mexicans depend on coffee for their livelihood. 75% of Mexico's small coffee farmers cultivate less than two hectares of land, and together they produce about 30% of the country's coffee each year, while the remainder comes from large or more productive farms.

Mexican coffee has a mild flavor, somewhat similar to Guatemalan Huehuetenango highland coffee — gentle, moderately saturated with delicate aromas, but with less noticeable acidity, which matches the taste preferences of many drinkers.

FrontStreet Coffee Recommendation

Mexico's gentle, low-acid character comes in large part from how the coffee is processed, and washed processing is the method behind most of it. The washed method floats the cherries, removes the pulp, ferments them in water to strip off the mucilage, then washes, dries and hulls them. Because the beans spend so long in water, they lose a good deal of their monosaccharides — fructose and glucose — which lowers the sugar content while raising the organic acids. The result is a coffee that keeps more of its own aroma and shows bright fruit acidity with a clean, fresh finish. FrontStreet Coffee's washed Yirgacheffe Banko Gotiti Cooperative is a clear example: the smallholders of the Yirgacheffe area send their cherries to shared processing stations, and this lot comes from a team in the Worka area known for especially refined, clean coffee. Its medium-light roast brings out jasmine florals and bright citrus with green tea and honey, and it suits pour-over, cold brew and espresso alike.

Kenya takes the same idea further with double washing, repeating the wash cycle to push the juice-like quality to its limit, and FrontStreet Coffee's Kenya Cherry Tomato is one of the best-known examples — sweet-sour and juicy, with cherry tomato, smoked plum, snow pear, black plum and yellow sugar. At the other extreme, FrontStreet Coffee's Jamaica Blue Mountain No. 1 shows why washed processing suited Jamaica so well: the island receives less sunlight than most origins, so removing the skin, pulp and mucilage before drying reduces the water held around the bean and shortens drying, giving translucent, low-defect green coffee. In the cup it keeps Blue Mountain's deep aroma and its hazelnut, cream, chocolate and caramel balance, with no single note standing out.

Because washed coffees hold on to their own character so well, brew them to protect it rather than to force extraction. For a medium-light roast, a pour-over with water a little below boiling, a medium-fine grind and a gentle staged pour keeps the citrus acidity and florals bright; if you want a cleaner, sweeter result, cold brew the same beans instead, since the low-temperature steep keeps the cup transparent. A slightly finer grind and more pressure will turn the same coffee toward its darker caramel and nut notes as an espresso.