Mexico Turquesa HG Chiapas

A rhetorical question… Is there a more complicated world political relationship than that of the United States and Mexico? There are many complicated ones but not one more complicated. There is that small disagreement with Texas… “Remember the Alamo”. There is that small Battle of San Jacinto on April 21,1836 resulting in the Republic of Texas.  That little skirmish in 1846, the Mexican-American War, where Mexico succeed the Alta California and Santa Fe de Nuevo Mexico territories; modern day Arizona, California, Colorado, Nevada, New Mexico, Utah and Wyoming, that cemented the United States “Manifest Destiny” from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean. The 1914 Tampico Affair and United States occupation of Veracruz. General Pershing’s 1917 pursuit of Pancho Villa into Mexico. The 1917 Zimmerman telegram where Germany encouraged Mexico to invade the United States upon entering World War I. The modern-day conundrum of the proposed 1,954-mile Mexico-United States boarder wall from the Gulf of Mexico following the Rio Grande to El Paso. The living legacy of NAFTA which, although well intentioned, has stirred a working middle-class melee and a deep national economic divide, cutting a swath thorough the Deep South, the Breadbasket and the Rust Belt.

Fortunately, our Mexican Turquesa HG Chiapas is a fairly straight-forward coffee.  Bordering Guatemala at Mexico’s extreme south, beans cultivated from small familial farms centered around the northern Chiapas regional coffee markets of Yajalon and San Cristobal de las Casas, both in the margin of 563-674 miles southeast of the capital Mexico City and 176 miles northwest of Guatemala. Our coffee is HG or High Grown, meaning cultivated between 3,300-4,000 feet, and although not the complexity of SHB or Strictly High Grown, those cultivated above 4,000 feet, the quality afforded is well-composed and tasty with greater affordability.

Our Turquesa, or turquoise, is a delightful semi-precious gemstone… not the intense dark fruit flavors found in the mountainous emerald-studded Guatemalan HueHuetenango’s across the border but a very approachable medium-light bodied toasted nut and semi-chocolate mélange with a barley malted sweetness and pleasant mild Meyers lemon finish. Economics, immigration, peaceful coexistence… Mexico is the world’s 12th wealthiest and 10th most populous and, regardless of history or inclination, our relationship must be a healthy “La Diplomatie” or successfully negotiated understanding. International relations can be messy, but your coffee does not have to be… a “tip of the cup” and “salud” to our southern neighbors… may we find the continuity of brotherhood and sisterhood that is and always has been before our very eyes. Respect, peace and prosperity to all.

Process: Washed, cherry fruit removed and dried  

Elevation: 2952-3608 feet