Mexico Farmgate Chiapas Nueva Paraiso La Concordia

Mount Everest comes to mind when looking for words to describe coffees from Chiapas. And even though Chiapas has coffee production reaching an impressive 1700 meters above sea level near the El Triunfo biosphere reserve, we're not talking about elevation when we say Mount Everest. Rather, the reference is to the level of difficulty in cultivating heirloom varieties like bourbon and typica despite the devastating toll of leaf rust throughout Mexico. Getting our hands on some of the best coffee from Chiapas is no accident. Rather, results come from a complex and meaningful supply chain. This particular lot was sourced from Azahar, a trading partner we first discovered in Colombia. Azahar has taken their model to Mexico and established a network of growers who understand the specialty market potential, and markets their coffee directly to buyers internationally on a quality-based pricing scale. Price transparency is at the core of Azhar’s trading ethics. The producers of this particular lot were paid $2.45 per pound for their dried parchment. Each producer uses their own micro-mill to depulp, ferment and wash their harvest coffee and then dry the coffee in the sun on patios before transporting the coffee in parchment to a centrally located dry mill facility where the coffee is prepared for export.