Decaf Mexico, Cristal

Oaxaca, Mexico

As throughout most of Mesoamerica, Mexico was first planted in coffee during early colonial times, most likely in the late 18th century. Due to the greater attention paid to the region’s rich mineral deposits and mining opportunities, coffee didn’t really develop as an industry until later, especially coming into its own in the late 19th and early 20th centuries with the redistribution of farms after independence and the emergence of smallholder farmers, specifically those of indigenous origin.

Historically, Mexican coffee was viewed as an inexpensive, low-grown blender with cup characteristics including nuttiness, chocolate, and generally mild citric acid. Today, though, high-grown Mexican coffee has extremely interesting complex citric and malic acidity, balanced sweetness in the form of chocolate and toffee, and an overall clean cup. We’ve had Mexican coffees that have absolutely knocked our socks off; in fact, some of the Cafe Imports sales staff wax very poetically about the fruity, floral, vanilla-cherry-chocolate cups they’ve had from here. 

Being such a large producing country and relatively close to visit, Mexico is bursting with potential. The climate and altitude conditions are excellent for specialty coffee, and every year more efforts are made to not just find it but improve it, and of course protect it from dangers like leaf rust and ojo de gallo.