MEXICO Oaxaca Pluma Juquila – In 1993 I flew my plane to Chiapas, Mexico in search of great coffee.  On the way we landed on the coast in Puerto Escondido.  From there, I flew north to Oaxaca which is only 70 miles as the crow flies but over a 7 hour bus ride due to the circuitous route through the mountains that lie between the two cities. This particular lot comes from families living near the neighboring towns of Santa Catarina Juquila and Santiago Yaitepec that cultivate coffee on farms with just a few acres.  Imagine starting at sea level in the popular Mexican beach destination of Puerto Escondido and traveling along progressively steeper and curvier roads through villages, where the local population still wear traditional indigenous clothing, eventually arriving at a lush forest intercropped with coffee, bananas, corn, beans, fruit trees, and views of the Pacific Ocean.  This is the Oaxacan coffee growing region known as the zona Pluma where the Sierra Madre del Sur coastal mountain range is peppered with small coffee farms.

During the harvest, each producer focuses on picking cherries at optimum ripeness.  Then the cherries are delivered to a centralized wet-mill where they are sorted and floated in ozone treated water to remove damage and clean the cherries of unwanted microbes.  Then the cherries are depulped and undergo a 48 hour controlled fermentation using selected microorganisms. Afterwards the parchment is placed on patios or raised beds to slowly sun dry to 11%.

Degree of Roast: 2

Coffee sold by the pound