Mexico: the neighbour nobody talks about
Origins · Mexico
Mexico: the neighbour nobody talks about
A guide to Mexican coffee — its southern highlands, its organic smallholders, and how to brew it.
8 min read
Photo: Eneas De Troya · CC BY 2.0
Mexico grows a great deal of coffee — it is one of the largest producers in the world, and for years it was the single biggest supplier to the United States — yet it is rarely talked about the way its Central American neighbours are. It is a country of small, often Indigenous farmers, of shade and organic certification, and, increasingly, of the high, bright, complex coffees coming off its southern sierras. The quiet neighbour is worth knowing.
01 — History & place
A short history of Mexican coffee
Coffee reached Mexico late in the eighteenth century and grew up, in the nineteenth, on large estates — especially in the Soconusco, the hot, fertile strip of Chiapas along the Guatemalan border, where foreign planters built big fincas. The twentieth century turned that on its head: land reform broke up the estates, and a state coffee institute organised and supported hundreds of thousands of small farmers in their place.
When that institute was dismantled around 1989, just as world prices collapsed, those smallholders were left exposed — and their response reshaped the country's coffee. Indigenous and campesino communities organised into cooperatives and turned to organic and fair-trade production, and Mexico became the largest grower of certified organic coffee in the world. Leaf rust dealt a heavy blow in 2012 and 2013, but the cooperative, organic, smallholder model endured, and alongside it a specialty scene has grown up around the high sierras.
Where Mexico grows its coffee
All of it grows in the south, on the folded highlands of the Sierra Madre, mostly between about 900 and 1,700 metres and much of it under shade. Four states do most of the work.
By far the largest is Chiapas, in the far south — the Soconusco and the central highlands together grow a great share of the country's coffee, much of it organic. West of it, mountainous Oaxaca gives some of Mexico's finest and most complex coffee, the Pluma Hidalgo area especially. In the east, Veracruz climbs the slopes below Pico de Orizaba around Coatepec and Huatusco, and to its north the Sierra of Puebla gives a soft, mild cup. Almost all of it comes from small family farms.
That shade — Mexican coffee is among the most shade-grown anywhere — and the smallholder scale are a big part of why so much of the country's coffee is certified organic and bird-friendly.
02 — Plant & process
Coffee varieties grown in Mexico
Mexico grows the classic arabicas — old Typica and Bourbon, along with Mundo Novo, Caturra and Catuaí — plus a home-bred variety, Garnica, developed in Veracruz. After leaf rust swept through, farms replanted heavily with hardy, rust-resistant hybrids such as Oro Azteca, Costa Rica 95 and Marsellesa, and the specialty end has begun to add exotics like Gesha. But the backbone, especially in the organic cooperatives, is still Typica and Bourbon grown under shade.
How Mexican coffee is processed
The great majority of Mexican coffee is fully washed, which gives it the clean, mild, gentle character it is known for. Much of it is also organic and shade-grown, and the country is a giant of the decaf trade, home to one of the world's big water-process decaffeination plants. In the specialty world, natural and honey processing are on the rise, adding sweetness and fruit; but the classic Mexican cup is a clean washed one.
Once picked and pulped, the coffee is dried on patios and beds before it is milled and graded for export.
Harvest: one dry-season crop
Mexico has a single harvest through the dry season, roughly from November to March. It follows the altitude, as everywhere — the lower slopes are picked first and the high sierra last.
03 — Taste & quality
What Mexican coffee tastes like
The everyday Mexican cup is gentle and easy to like: mild and clean, light to medium in body, with a soft acidity and flavours of chocolate, nuts and caramel. It is rarely loud — which is exactly why it makes such a good base for blends, and such a good decaf. But climb into the high country and it wakes up: the best lots from the Chiapas highlands, from Oaxaca's Pluma and from high Veracruz are brighter and more complex, with cocoa, citrus and red fruit and sometimes a floral lift, all kept clean and sweet by careful, organic, shade-grown farming.
| Chiapas | Clean, sweet and chocolatey |
| Oaxaca · Pluma | Bright, floral and complex |
| Veracruz · Altura | Sweet, nutty and balanced |
| Puebla | Soft, mild and caramel |
Roast tends to suit the coffee: the mild, sweet, everyday lots take a medium roast beautifully — a big reason Mexican coffee is such a staple — while the brighter high-grown lots are kept lighter to protect their fruit and acidity.
Grading: altitude and "Altura"
Mexico grades its coffee by altitude, and has its own word for the high stuff: Altura, meaning highland. You will see it on the bag — "Altura Coatepec", "Chiapas Altura" — as shorthand for a higher, denser, finer coffee, alongside the usual screen-size and defect checks. In the specialty world it is the cupping score that matters most, and commercially, so do the organic and fair-trade certifications that so much Mexican coffee carries.
04 — Into the cup
How to brew Mexican coffee
Mexican coffee's mild, clean sweetness makes it one of the most forgiving, versatile origins there is — lovely as an easy everyday filter and a soft, chocolatey espresso. Save your most careful pour-over for the bright high-grown lots from Oaxaca or the Chiapas highlands, which reward a clean brew that shows their fruit. The four methods below cover it, with a starting recipe for each.
Rinse the paper filter, add 20 g of grounds, bloom with 40 g of water for 40 seconds, then pour slowly up to 320 g. A clean V60 or Kalita lets a high Oaxaca or Chiapas lot's cocoa, citrus and fruit come through — the best way to taste the top of Mexico.
Seat a rinsed filter, add 16 g of grounds and 250 g of water, stir gently and steep for about a minute and a half, then press slowly. Forgiving and quick, it makes the most of Mexico's clean, mild sweetness — an easy cup to keep on the counter.
Add 30 g of coarse grounds and 450 g of water, stir, steep four minutes, skim and decant. The press rounds a mild Mexican coffee into something fuller, nuttier and chocolatey — a comforting, easy-going mug for the morning.
Grind fine, distribute evenly and pull 18 g in to 36 g out in 25–30 seconds. A mild Mexican coffee makes a soft, sweet, chocolatey shot that is gentle and easy to dial in, and lovely with milk. If it runs sour, grind finer; bitter, grind coarser.
As a rule, let a mild everyday Mexican coffee be your easy filter or soft espresso, and save a clean pour-over for a bright, high-grown lot from Oaxaca or Chiapas. However you brew it, look after the beans — buy them whole, keep them sealed away from heat and light, and use them within a few weeks of roasting. If you'd like to taste Mexico for yourself, our Mexican coffees below are a good place to start.