Description
Location: Sierra Juarez, Oaxaca
Producer: small holders
Altitude: 1300 – 1700 masl
Verital: typica, mundo novo, bourbon
Process: washed
Roast: light
This micro lot originates from the same cooperative we partnered with last year. Cafe El Zapotecto, led by Romulo Chavez, comprises 180 coffee-producing families in the Sierra Juarez, a temperate mountain range north of Oaxaca city. Chavez has worked diligently to establish direct relationships with buyers, securing better prices for Cafe El Zapateco’s producers. The cooperative, centred in Santo Domingo Cacalotepec, fosters a strong communal outlook, symbolised by a raven with a coffee cherry in its mouth, depicted on their bags.
During the harvest, instead of hiring pickers, neighbours assist each other in harvesting. The producer being helped is expected to reciprocate by cooking lunch for the helpers and assisting in their own harvest later. Farm sizes vary from 0.5 to 5 hectares, with the average Los Machos member having less than one hectare and producing 100 to 150 kilos of parchment yearly. Coffee is pulped and fermented in hand-built wooden tanks then dried on traditional woven mats. Washed coffees undergo fermentation for 12 to 36 hours and sun-drying on rooftops.
The Cerro del Cuervo title is a mark of excellence reserved for exceptional coffee lots from El Zapateco. It signifies meticulous selection, limited volumes, and a commitment to quality that often involves microlot blending to ensure consistency and availability.
Cupping Notes: red apple, milk chocolate, prune
