Regional Nueva Esperanza

The coffee of this lots is grown in the Mixteca region of the state of Oaxaca by producers members of the UNECAFE cooperative. La Nueva Esperanza is a town in the municipality of La Reforma, located in the upper part of the southern coastal mountain range facing the Pacific Ocean.

It was originally inhabited by Mixtecos of the Tacuate ethnic group, however, during the Mexican Revolution of 1910, the local population dispersed to safer places, leaving the town empty. At the end of the revolution, the town was repopulated mostly by new people who named it Nueva Esperanza (New Hope), as a symbol of a new beginning.

Very poetically, the Mixtecs identify themselves as “Ñuu Savi” or “rain people” and refer to their language as “tnuu savi” or “word of the rain”.

During its daily inspection, the producer checks the level of maturity of the coffee. The producer harvests only ripe cherries to obtain the best product (heavier = more expensive). Each day, the cherries are transferred into plastic bags to the mill. The producers start by washing their pulpers before they are used, then calibrate them, clean the husk reception place, and check the filtration of the “honey water” (residual water of the coffee, containing sugars and mucilage). 

For this process, the majority of producers use manual pulpers. The depulping uses water to soften the cherry and avoid damage to the parchment. It is done the same day of the harvest, although some producers ferment the cherry coffee one day and depulp it the next day with the cherries of the day to obtain other profiles.

The fermentation tanks are mostly made of wood or concrete, but sometimes the farmer uses coffee bags. The fermentation takes between 14 to 16 hours according to the altitude. Once washed and dried in patios, the coffee is stored in the house of the producer between being transferred to Oaxaca City.