Origin Report: Mexico 2011
Posted on March 18th, 2011
Chiapas March 2011:
El Triunfo coop
CESMACH coop, Union el Triunfo
By: Tim Chapdelaine
People take back Mexico. The final panel in the extraordinary Diego Rivera Mural in El Palacio Nacional, Ciudad Mexico.
The Diego Rivera mural is magnificent. His friendship with Trotsky and choppy marriage to Frida Kahlo fed his art. This piece, of which this photo is the last panel of three. The massive middle panel is the largest in a series that lines the halls surrounding it. There are small rooms holding other art around it but they are mere satellites to the sun that is Diego Rivera’s art. The inescapable flavor of his art was the truth and the revolutionary flipoff that he gave to corrupt power in his work. One painting in a side room by a very good artist showed a family working hard as the father built a wooden cart; a tribute to the workers and peasants who built this great nation taking back land from their overlords. Coffee people are still fighting and the grace and poise with which the people of Cesmach, El Triunfo and their two sister coops are changing their lives in an area that has great coffee is stunning.
El Triunfo Coop Patios
El Triunfo Coop serves producers who grow coffee in a buffer Zone around the El Triunfo Biosphere Reserve (Zona Amortiguamiento). Various activities are carried out in this zone to encourage the preservation of the land in the preserve in balance with a livelihood for the people. A permit is needed to enter the preserve, which is 3-4 hours further than the farm we visited.
El Triunfo and Cesmach work closely to supply a number of buyers. Café Imports supports this reserve with an additional 20 cent premium which goes to funding the preservation of the Zona Nucleo of the preserve.
What most astounded me on this trip was the quality of the coffee that they are capable of producing. This is a group worth placing your bets on.
The Village above was severely damaged by floods during the heavy rains from Hurricane Mateo in October 2010. You will ride 2-3 hours by truck and 4 hours by horse in the rainy season to get to the farm.
The area has a distinct dry season which allows for good drying conditions for the coffee.
Short rains occur during the dry season which trigger a flowering. (below) indicating a very compact ripening which may be ready for harvest in November, 2010.
Humberto Roblero has a farm of about 20 hectares (large for this area). It is full shade and has a section where there is old growth forest shading a spring which feeds his little pulpery.
His coffee is @ N 15°44.424’ W 092°.43.313’ at 1400-1700 meters. His varietals are Bourbon, typical and a little Mundo Novo. Bourbon and Typica are the predominant cultivars in this area. He produces about 140-150 qq/annum ave. He had 126 in 09/10 which was a bad harvest and expects 180 this year which will be a very good one. He was just finishing the harvest when I visited so the ripeness is not uniform below.
The climate here is ideal for patio drying. He has a good pulper and uses a short canal to separate by density after fermentation . It is a compact system and could use some additional controls. Most important first steps will be improving ripeness in picking and cleanliness in Mill.
Cesmach Receiving
Coffee is brought in 10-25 bag increments by farmers. They bring the coffee in clean woven plastic bags and transfer them to clean sisal. The bags are weighed and each bag is tried by Jeremiah who is also the cupper. Each bag in every lot is tagged with a unique number and then stored in a tonga which is a larger lot intended for export.
This is a sound segregation system. Representative lots are well built and they are working on improving their cupping and calibration with clients.
Lot segregation and tagging is just right. Coffee will be stored in warehouse for a month or more of additional reposo. (Resting the coffee in parchment also known as curing in Africa)
After the coffee is received it is physically inspected and the defects are taken out and weighed as well as moisture being tested. To this point the controls are solid.
We cupped 18 coffees of which a couple coule be approaching 90 with a little more rest, and also a number were solid 87s despite being fresh.
These coffees had minimal rest in parchment and I was blown away by the potential here. This is an incredibly well run coop with excellent management and stellar relations with the growers. They seem genuinely unconcerned about the growers delivering and the growers are relaxed; they know the expectations when they bring coffee. My favorite part was watching the growers deliver their coffee and watching Jeremiah try each bag and pull samples for testing as the growers watched. This is the people’s coffee and Co-op.
We are expecting these spectacular coffees in the 2nd Half of April/ 1st Half May.
Keep your eyes peeled for their arrival!
-Tim Chapdelaine
