PEÑA COLORADA, Community Lot

The Mazateca mountain range sits north of Oaxaca city and forms much of the state's border with Veracruz. This region is known for its remote location, difficult access, and steep, dramatic topography. The Mazateca is also famous for its mystical elements; a strong culture of shamanism and psychoactive mushroom use made it an unlikely centre for alternative tourism in the 1960s and '70s.

Today, the region sees few visitors. Even in the coffee world, it's often overlooked due to challenging conditions, remote locations, and small production volumes. Coffee yields here are exceptionally low, even by Oaxacan standards, partly due to cool temperatures. In the Mazateca, coffee is grown at 1,500 meters and above. At this latitude, such altitudes can experience very low temperatures, making frost damage a serious risk for producers.

However, this climate and altitude also benefit the cup profile. Coffees from the Mazateca are among the most complex and highest quality in all of Mexico.

Many producers in this region don't speak Spanish, Mazateco is the first language for most people. While this can make organisation and coordination more challenging, the quality and potential of the coffee make the Mazateca a unique and special region.

Farms here range from 0.5 to 4 hectares, though most producers have less than one hectare and produce less than 100 kg of parchment coffee each year. These low yields are the primary challenge facing producers across Oaxaca, particularly in the Mazateca.

The community-led producer group at Peña Colorada consolidates their coffees to ensure an exportable volume. The cherries are pulped, often with hand pulpers, then fermented for about 48 hours, typically in wooden tanks. After fermentation, the coffee is dried on *petates*, traditional hand-woven mats.

The Peña Colorada group is not a formal co-op or association, but rather a community-led producer group.

Raw Material are working closely with them to open up access to the specialty market for producers in the Mazateca and to provide a sustainable and profitable supply chain for their coffees. This approach offers a long-term, stable, and profitable alternative to selling to local intermediaries at market-based prices—currently the only option for many producers. Over time, this supply chain can generate capital and investment to improve yields, production volumes, and quality in the Mazateca region.

The weather, the land, and the producers together generate extraordinary coffees in this region. The varieties mainly cultivated are Typica, Mundo Novo and Caturra. Most of these plants tend to be over 40 years old which is a major contributing factor for the low yields.

The average amount of coffee processed by each producer per harvest can be as low as 100 kg. This means we all too often buy lots of 20 kg from each producer (the smallest lot we have received was 4kg). The large amount of work for gathering and cupping samples and the microlots turns out to be absolutely worth the effort due to the complexity of the coffees that this region produces.

This is undeniably one of the most impressive coffee producing regions we work with, in Mexico. In the Mazateca most producers may harvest around 100 kilos, but the greater majority is kept for consumption. For this reason, some blends come from numerous producers.

Most coffee producers in the Mazateca have between 0.5 to 5 hectares of land with the average producer working on less than one hectare. This means that, as in much of Oaxaca, production is very small and yields are lower here than in other areas of the state. The Sierra Mazateca mountain range is located to the north of Oaxaca city and forms much of the state’s border with Veracruz. The region is very remote, hard to access, with many in Oaxaca not even knowing of its existence.

Today the region is rarely visited, and even in the coffee world it is often neglected due to the challenging conditions, remote locations and small production.  Even by Oaxaca’s low standards production yields are tiny here in part due to the cool temperatures.  Coffee is generally grown at 1500 metres and above in the Mazateca and at this latitude, these altitudes experience very low temperatures making frost damage a real issue for producers.

This climate and these altitudes also contribute positively to the cup profile and in general, coffees from the Mazateca are among the most complex and highest quality in all of Mexico. Many producers here do not speak Spanish, and Mazateco is the first language for the vast majority of people in the region. This can make organisation and coordination a little tough, but the quality and potential make the Mazateca one of the main focuses of our work in Mexico.

Working closely with Red Beetle and their associates in the community, Raw Material are aiming to open up access to the specialty market for producers in the Mazateca, and to provide a sustainable and profitable supply chain for their coffees. Doing this will provide a long term, stable, and profitable alternative to simply selling to local intermediaries at a market-based price- currently the only option for many producers. In time this supply chain can help to generate capital and investment to help improve yields, production volumes and quality in the Mazateca.

Typica is believed to be the first described variety of Coffea arabica. It's known by several other names, including Blue Mountain, Criollo, Guatemala, Sumatra, Arabigo, Plume Hidalgo, and Kona.

Typica plants are characterized by their tall stature and are renowned for producing coffee with excellent cup quality. However, they have low productivity and are susceptible to coffee diseases. Despite these drawbacks, Typica plants are well-adapted to cold environments. Their most distinctive feature is the bronze-tipped young leaves. Today, Typica is still cultivated in various regions, including Central America, Hawaii, the Caribbean, South America, and Indonesia.

Mundo Novo is a coffee variety resulting from a natural cross between Bourbon and Typica, discovered in Mineiros do Tietê, São Paulo, Brazil. It's known for its productivity and good cup quality, but it's susceptible to major diseases. Mundo Novo has commercial importance in Brazil and other South American countries, including Peru. Costa Rica introduced it in 1952, but farmers didn't widely adopt it due to its very tall stature. This variety can also be found in Malawi, Africa. While vigorous and productive for a traditional American variety, Mundo Novo matures late.

Bourbon is one of the most culturally and genetically significant varieties of Arabica coffee in the world. This tall variety is characterized by relatively low production and susceptibility to major diseases. However, it produces excellent cup quality when grown at high altitudes.

The first Bourbon plantation dates back to 1715 when the variety was introduced from Yemen to Bourbon Island, now known as La Réunion. Bourbon traces its origins to a broad group of C. arabica specimens that developed naturally and is still cultivated in Central America today.

Depending on the sub-group, Bourbon coffee can produce red, yellow, or orange-coloured cherries. The plant's shoots initially grow upwards at a 45° angle to the stem, and the stems are sturdy. Young leaves are green, and the plants generally have broader leaves and rounder fruit and seeds than Typica and its descendants.

The washed process was designed to minimize the risk of off-flavours caused by uncontrolled fermentation during the natural process. Cherries are typically sorted using a flotation tank, where under-ripe or defective fruits float to the top and can be removed. The remaining cherries are then pulped and left in a tank to ferment until the sticky fruit mucilage is soft enough to be washed off the parchment—a paper-like layer surrounding the seed.

The design and cleanliness of the tanks used for fermentation are crucial, and the type, degree and speed of microbial activity depends on various factors. These include the amount of fruit remaining, the presence of bacteria and yeasts, whether the tank is filled with water, and the environmental conditions.

Once the mucilage has sufficiently degraded, it's washed away with water. The remaining parchment coffee, as it's commonly called, is then dried until it reaches a safe moisture content. The bacteria-rich and sugary water used in the process must be treated carefully, as it can cause algae blooms if it enters streams and rivers.

In situations where large amounts of coffee are processed in bulk, such as in Ethiopia, some operations have found it economical to use a mechanical demucilager. This device removes all the fruit from the parchment with minimal water, bypassing the fermentation stage entirely. However, some believe this leads to a reduction in cup quality, as many flavour precursors are created through fermentation.