Elevated to New Heights

Earlier this year, our roaster Dan traveled to Mexico, to visit Red Fox Coffee Merchants’ recently established cupping lab in Oaxaca, where he tasted dozens of coffee samples from local producers and was blown away by how fruity, delicate, and complex they were. Compared to previous years, these coffees were on a whole new level. Ultimately, he secured contracts for three full micro-lots from producers Francisco Cortes, Andrea Feria Garcia, and Angel Castro Garcia. What he tasted opened his eyes to the incredible quality of coffee from Oaxaca, and he couldn’t help but wonder why he hadn’t tasted Mexican coffee like this before.

Mexican coffee farmers have had a rough few decades. After the Mexican Coffee Institute (INMECAFE) collapsed in 1989, coffee farmers lost access to the high-quality fertilizers, pest protection, and farm management techniques that the institution’s support provided. This caused a decline in coffee quality and market viability, and as a result, many farmers were at the mercy of predatory coffee brokers known as coyotes, who bought their coffee at a fraction of its worth.

Since most producers in the region are smallholders with about two hectares of land (roughly 2.5 acres) to work, their ability to fetch a high price for their coffee is limited by the quantity and quality of their harvests. For this reason, farmers in areas like Oaxaca, Chiapas, and Veracruz banded together to fill in the gaps left by INMECAFE, forming cooperatives to purchase coffee milling equipment, share farming techniques, and develop direct relationships with buyers. Unfortunately, this wasn’t a perfect solution either since a lack of traceability limits the recognition that individual producers receive for their efforts, and some producers became distrustful of prospective buyers, who often fell short of their promises of higher prices and more significant purchasing commitments.

This is where our friends at Red Fox Coffee Merchants entered the picture. Since 2020, Red Fox has worked with producers in these regions to rebuild their trust and help bring out the full potential of the amazing coffee varieties they cultivate. With its new year-round headquarters in the heart of Oaxaca, Red Fox works directly with farmers, answering questions and providing them with direct feedback about their harvests, as well as working to improve the traceability and lot separation of their coffees.

Why are these practices important? Traceability in coffee production involves tracking and verifying the journey of coffee from farm to cup, ensuring quality, sustainability, and ethical sourcing through detailed records of their origin, harvest, and processing. Lot separation is the practice of keeping distinct batches of coffee separate throughout production to preserve unique flavors, qualities, and traceability.

The three micro-lots that we purchased come from producers Francisco Cortes, Andrea Feria Garcia, and Andrea’s son, Angel Castro Garcia. Without the work that Red Fox has done to establish relationships with farmers like them, coffees like these might have instead contributed to community lots, the aggregate of multiple smallholders’ harvests to meet volume requirements. With these lots now separated out, we can taste the culmination of the coffee variety's distinct qualities, the terroir's impact, and each producer’s hard work in cultivating it.

While these coffees were cupped blindly alongside many others, it was perhaps no coincidence that they all came from Oaxaca. When it comes to terroir, or the unique environmental factors that contribute to a coffee’s characteristics, these coffees stood out because they were all cultivated at relatively high altitudes. Generally speaking, the most widely consumed species of coffee (Coffea arabica) grows between 1000 to 2000 meters above sea level (masl). The higher the elevation, the more defined its acidity, florality, and overall complexity become. All three farms sit at elevations ranging between 1600-1850 masl, and their coffees exhibited more defined fruit acidities and clarity with flavors ranging from sweeter notes of strawberry shortcake and muscadine grape to brighter notes of raspberry and hibiscus.

When deciding which coffees to contract, Dan wanted our menu to reflect the history and diversity of coffee within the region. The primary coffee varieties produced in Oaxaca are Typica, Bourbon, and Pluma. Typica and Bourbon are the original varieties from which all others can be traced. Typica offers relatively small yields but is known for its excellent cup quality, defined by a distinctive acidity and florality. Bourbon is prized for its sweetness and offers higher yields than Typica, but more resilient hybrid varieties have widely replaced it over time. Finally, Pluma, or Pluma Hidalgo, is a natural mutation of Typica that developed in Mexico over decades of natural selection as the plants adapted to their new American terroir. The result is a coffee that produces higher yields and even better-tasting cups than its predecessors. We see Red Fox’s work with Oaxacan producers to create traceable micro-lots of these historically significant and unique varieties as a thrilling way to highlight Mexico’s rich and enduring coffee heritage.

Finally, all the coffees we purchased underwent a meticulous sorting process to ensure their quality. First, the coffees were sorted using strict parameters for size and density. Then, Red Fox used an optical sorter at a local mill that identified and removed defects such as “quakers,” or seeds whose fruits did not produce enough sugar while on the plant. These defects can cause cups to taste bitter and astringent, with vegetal, nutty, and grassy flavors. While sorting out defects reduces the quantity of a producer’s harvest, it also greatly improves the coffee’s overall quality and consistency. This is a value add for which we were happy to pay a premium.

We are thrilled to share these coffees with you now as a testament to all the hard work done over the years to bring Mexican coffee to this present moment and the vibrant diversity and incredible potential they represent. In the future, we look forward to purchasing more coffee from these producers and visiting their farms to establish more personal connections. Lastly, we would like to give a special thank you to Adam, Maria, Joel, Carina, the entire team at Red Fox, and the many hands involved in bringing this coffee all the way to our little shop in Manayunk.