The Story of Mexican Coffee and Estate Recommendations: Oaxaca Region

Northern Mexico's latitude and climate are unsuitable for coffee, so all of the country's growing regions lie in the south. Ninety percent of Mexico's coffee comes from four southern provinces: Chiapas (35%), Oaxaca (13%), Puebla (15%), and Veracruz (25%). Nearly half a million people nationwide are engaged in coffee cultivation, 70% of them smallholders. Unlike Brazil, almost all cultivation and processing here relies on manual labour, and much of the coffee is grown organically. Mexico is one of the world's largest exporters of organic coffee, accounting for 60% of global organic coffee production in 2000. Chiapas and Oaxaca, the two producing provinces, are Mexico's poorest regions and home to the largest indigenous populations. Towering mountains hamper transportation, and differences in language and ethnicity meant that liberation from Spanish colonial rule did not bring prosperity to the south.

Coffee arrived relatively late in Mexico. In the late 18th century, Spanish immigrants brought coffee trees from Cuba and the Dominican Republic in the Caribbean. Commercial cultivation did not begin until the 1790s, when German and Italian immigrants arrived from Guatemala and Central America and established the first coffee plantations in Veracruz. Mexico has kept its smallholder tradition, and after the Mexican Revolution agricultural reforms allowed indigenous people and farmers to own small plots for self-sufficiency. The 1970s and 1980s were the golden age of Mexican coffee. In 1973, the National Coffee Institute of Mexico (INMECAFE) was established, providing small farmers with technical assistance, loans, guaranteed purchase, and even access to international markets. Production rose, with some regions growing by as much as 900%, significantly improving social development in remote areas.

For Caribbean and other Central American countries, bananas and coffee may be the most important economic products, but Mexico has extremely rich mineral resources. During the Spanish colonial era these were precious metals such as gold and silver; today it is oil. For Mexico, oil, industry, and tourism are far more important than coffee. The southern coffee farmers are mostly indigenous and are typically given the lowest priority. Coffee prices are set by the world market, by the futures prices in London and New York. When prices are good, the profits are monopolised by large multinational exporters; when they are poor, the farmers suffer.

Mexico's best coffee region is Chiapas in the south, where varieties grown include Tapanchula and Huixtla. Oaxaca also produces premium beans, and its naturally grown Pluma Coixtepec is among the finest. Oaxaca additionally produces Altura Orizaba and Altura Huatusco, the Altura Coatapec region produces Veracruz coffee, and Mexico's best large coffee beans are Liquidambar MS.

OAXACA

Most farmers in the OAXACA region own less than 2 hectares (4.4 acres) and belong to one of several large cooperatives. There are some larger estates as well, a few of which have developed diversified tourism.

Altitude: 900-1,700m

Harvest: December-March

Varieties: Bourbon, Typica, Caturra, Maragogype

FrontStreet Coffee Recommendation

Mexican coffee tends to be mellow, nutty, and gently sweet, and if that balanced, low-acidity profile is what you enjoy, FrontStreet Coffee's Brazil Cerrado Red Bourbon is a natural next stop. A classic Brazilian single origin and one of the most common red Bourbon lots in South America, it is medium roasted to give creamy peanut, toast, caramel, and hazelnut aromas, a round body, and a slight, gentle bitterness. It suits a pour-over, but is equally at home in a moka pot, an espresso machine, a siphon, or a French press.

If you would like to explore Brazil a little further, FrontStreet Coffee's Brazil Queen's Estate is grown in Mogiana, close to South Minas, where fertile red volcanic soil lets the fruit absorb abundant nutrients. The rare Yellow Bourbon variety, a natural mutation of Red Bourbon, brings a cleaner fruit character along with the sugarcane sweetness and chocolate notes that are hard to find in other regions.