This rich, satisfying light roast opens with aromas of red apple, marzipan, and honeysuckle. Notes of brown sugar, roasted almond, and cocoa powder are complemented by Fuji apple acidity, with a delightful ginger snap finish.

Details

Producer: CESMACH
Farm: Smallholders
Region: Sierra Madre, Chiapas
Altitude: 3,937-5,741 feet | 1,200-1,750 masl
Varietal: Bourbon, Typica, Mundo Novo
Process: Washed
Roast: Light
Notes: Red Apple, Ginger Snap, Roasted Almond

Food 4 Farmers Benefit

Net profits from sales of this coffee will be donated to Food 4 Farmers to support their work with CESMACH and other coffee cooperatives throughout Latin America:

"We began working with CESMACH in 2013, after coffee rust struck and devastated coffee farms throughout Latin America, to develop effective long-term strategies to overcome food insecurity and inadequate coffee livelihoods.

"For years, CESMACH families have been confronting the challenges of low coffee prices and devastating effects of climate change. Most families here face two and a half months of food scarcity every year. Developing a long-term, comprehensive plan for food security—and making it possible to act on that plan—is fundamental to making these families and communities more resilient.

"Together, we identified beekeeping as a key strategy to build better livelihoods and nutrition. The cooperative had begun beekeeping activities several years earlier, and already had 50 members who had learned basic beekeeping skills."

Click here to learn more about Food 4 Farmers' life-changing work.

The Story

Imported by our friends at Cafe Imports and Certified Organic by OCIA.

CESMACH (Campesinos Ecologicos de la Sierra Madre de Chiapas) consists of 455 small-scale coffee farmers under Sixto Bonilla's leadership. Member farms are located in the buffer zone of El Triunfo Biosphere Reserve, which is in the highlands of the Sierra Madre just across the border from Huehuetenango, Guatemala. It's one of the most diverse forest reserve areas in the world and contains Mesoamerica's largest cloud forest, as well as a protected natural environment for thousands of plant and animal species.

Conditions are ripe for quality coffee, with shade-grown heirloom varieties (Bourbon, Typica), great altitude (1,200-1,750 masl), and passionate coffee growers who want to produce high-quality lots.

Cafe Imports invested in a quality-control program addressing coffee varieties, fertilization, picking, processing, and lot selection. The plan is to have a certified Q Grader from each cooperative and a centralized cupping lab to aid in lot selection, give feedback to the producers, and increase the overall quality of the coffee they are producing.