Skip to product information
1 of 1

Central American

Mexico Chiapas Rosalba Tovia

Mexico Chiapas Rosalba Tovia

Mexican coffee is not a favorite at our shop, but there are always exceptions, and this one deserves some love.

We met the mastermind, Rosalba Cifuentes Tovia, a couple years ago and was super impressed and bought her coffee. Last year she invited us to see her farms, and town, so we went down and visited and picked out this particular lot that had been grown just by her family members. Now that we did that, we got first dibs on it again, so we bought it again this year!

She is so excited about her coffee. You can tell how passionate she was about sharing her coffee with people who will appreciate it. This is a single town, single varietal (Bourbon), strictly high grown (4,000-5,000 feet altitude), well sorted, very fresh coffee.

The two main regions of Mexican coffee are Chiapas and Oaxaca. Both can be nice, but Chiapas is close to the border of Guatemala and in general has a better reputation than Oaxacan coffees. You want the ones high up the mountain, which this one is, in the town of Bella Vista.

This Mexico coffee shares a lot of traits with a Guatemala Huehuetenango, which is right across the border. The lighter roasts are a little bit fruity (lemon, melon, apple) with a lot of complexity. It's a really dense bean and needs a lot of airflow. We had a couple of test roasts where the inside wasn't getting roasted enough, so we had to up the airflow. Medium roasts of this bean are so easy to drink. Not terribly complex, but so creamy, so sweet, almost like a toasted marshmallow, it just is gone before you know it. Maybe 5 to 10 seconds of 2nd cracks is the most you really want.

You can take it darker than that for French Roast, but it's a little bit expensive for French Roast. You would generally be better off using a less expensive bean; like Peru, Uganda or Colombia, but this one certainly can handle it if that's what you're looking for. In general, I'd tell you to stay away from Mexican beans, but you don't want to miss this one.

US Arrival: May 2021

View full details

Customer Reviews

Based on 3 reviews Write a review