LEMONADE  |  RASPBERRY  |  DANDELION

Producer: Raw Material
Region: Sierra Mazateca
MASL: 1600 - 1850
Process: Washed
Varieties: Typica 
Roasting Profile: Aeropress, French Press, Pour Over

Please note:
If you're ordering 500g, you'll receive 2 x 250g bags
If you're ordering 1kg, you'll receive 4 x 250g bags

Yoloxochtilan is one of the larger towns in the Sierra Mazateca region. This lot is comprised of coffees from several producers located in and around the Yoloxochitlan area.

The Mazateca is located in the state of Oaxaca, one of the most diverse states in Mexico, both biologically and culturally. The Mazateca gets its name from the presence of the indigenous group, the Mazatec, which is a Nahualt name that translates to “the deer people”. However, in their own language, Mazatec, the group is called Ha Shuta Enima, which means “those who work the hills”.

The land is found between the regions from La Canada and the Papaloapan Valley, at the northern tip of the state of Oaxaca. As part of the Sierra Madre Sur and the Sierra Oriental, the land is surrounded by high mountains, cliffs, and hills of mainly mesophile forest, bathed by constant rains, and the intermittent presence of mist.

The Mazateca is an important indigenous region where 92% of the population speaks an indigenous language, mostly Mazatec, with a few Nahuatl and Mixtec speakers also. The locals show a connection to their ancestry through their celebrations and traditions, such as celebrations for each town patron, day of the dead, local seed sowing traditions, and many others.

The region is also one of the most lacking in health and education coverage of the country with an alarming poverty and illiteracy level. It is made up of small and isolated communities where the main economic activity is small-scale agriculture, since few people own more than a couple hectares of land.

There is an important tradition of coffee growing in this region. The steep landscape makes for hard work but is also the reason for the outstanding cup quality, which for a long time got lost in huge blends. By separating and cupping the small lots individually though we are able to separate the outstanding, the good, the not so bad and the plain right ugly.

It may be a lot of work but we are able to make many blends of many qualities and flavour profiles which is undoubtedly worth every ounce of effort we put into it. Especially as the average price in the region was MX$35 (US$1.70) / kg of parchment coffee for many years. Even with the high market prices of 2021, the local price only reached MX$45.

Our average price this year was MX$80, many producers received a lot more due to that being just the average. Most of the producers continue the coffee production of their parents and grandparents and often the whole family works together at harvest time.

Sadly, this is being threatened due to a mixture of low coffee prices, coffee leaf rust, ageing plants and lack of resources and assistance from private or public sectors. This has led to a drop in yields, as low as 100kg per hectare, as a reference, the average in Colombia is 2,400 kg per hectare, and in Brazil up to 5,200 kg.

For the past twenty years, this has contributed to an alarming increase in migration of young people to major cities in Mexico and to the United States. The rise in the abandonment of land and coffee crops by the young has also left the very heavy-handed and labor-intensive coffee work to the elderly producers, many of whom we work with are above the age of 70 and even older than 80 years old.

The weather, the land, and the producers together generate extraordinary coffees in this region. The varieties mainly cultivated are Typica, Mundo Novo and Caturra. Most of these plants tend to be over 40 years old which is a major contributing factor for the low yields. The average amount of coffee processed by each producer per harvest can be as low as 100kg, They often keep a considerable part for themselves.

This means we all too often buy lots of 20kg from each producer (the smallest lot we have received was 4kg). The large amount of work for gathering and cupping samples and the micro-lots turns out to be absolutely worth the effort due to the complexity of the coffees that this region produces. This is undeniably one of the most impressive coffee-producing regions we work in, in Mexico.