Oaxaca is dreamy. It is a place out of time, on the ley lines of something potent. Life here is more saturated. The veil is thin. The coffees from Oaxaca are incredibly sweet, and the region has deeply rooted and highly influential foodways and traditions. 2018 is Revelator’s first year incorporating Mexico as a staple origin on our menu, and I decided to focus our purchasing efforts in Oaxaca.

Each year, thousands of coffee lots are submitted for consideration at the Cup of Excellence, an international competition for high quality coffees. The coffees are rigorously vetted, and winning coffees are sold in global auctions at premium prices, with the vast majority of auction proceeds going to the farmers.  

As spring unfolds here in the States, and the northern half of the earth leans towards the sun, fresh crop coffees from Central America return to make their annual debut on our menu. Peak harvest for most (with a few exceptions) of Central America’s higher altitude coffees occurs between January and March, beginning to make their way to you by May and June. While we enjoy our Southern Hemisphere coffees (Gatare, Kalico, El Zapote), I’d like to introduce you to a few of the people who grow, mill, and export some of our upcoming offerings from Costa Rica, Nicaragua, and Honduras. 

To get to the town of San Martín de Pangoa, you drive straight down from the airport in the high plains of Jauja. From there, it’s a five or six hour commute to the Selva Central. It’s real cold and real high in Jauja, and it gets real hot about four hours in.