MÉXICO Red Fox José a Castro García

Oaxaca is an enigma in many ways but also can produce some of the very best cups in the country. Production here is still overwhelmingly driven by original lines of Bourbon and Typica, including the unique Pluma variety in the southern coastal mountains. With 16 distinct indigenous groups/cultures alone, many of which grow coffee, the region is incredibly diverse from an environmental, climatic, and social perspective. There are so many logistical and cost-of-production challenges here but that’s what excites and drives us to get better and bring these lots to more of our roasting clients and their end consumers. These are vibrant, delicious, sweet coffees that seem to disappear from your cup because they go down so easily.

San Vicente Yogondoy is a lush, densely forested, isolated, and remote community nearby San Agustin Loxicha in the Sierra Sur region of Oaxaca. The steep slopes where coffee is growing under a dense native shade canopy face the Pacific ocean to the south and receive very distinct rainy and dry seasons with cooling breezes off of the Pacific.

The Garcia Luna family has organized with extended family members to deliver impeccably clean parchment. Each producer’s harvest is cupped individually, then blended or separated according to quality. Productivity within the group is relatively high and each farmer has on average 5 hectares, making production of high-quality coffee a more profitable proposition.

The indigenous Zapotec community still maintains their language and describe the area as the Rio de Abejas (Bees’ River), the translation for Yogondoy in Zapotec. Tellingly, many of the coffee farmers also maintain beehives and produce honey. Many of the farmers in this group have younger coffee trees which were planted within the last five years, and are continuing the tradition of maintaining almost 100% Pluma variety, the local mutation of Typica being grown for over 80 years that thrives in these conditions, soils, and climate. Several of the farmers are also under the age of 30; an encouraging fact showing the future of coffee farming in this special, unique community.