Mexican Chiapas – Cristal

Taste: An easy-drinking and mild everyday coffee for those who like bright acidity and muted chocolate and nutty flavors. Mexican Cristal shines as a blender, especially when paired with a heartier origin like Guatemala, Ethiopian Yirgacheffe, or any of the more robust central African beans like Kenya, Congo, or Rwanda.

Roast: This hard bean accepts all roasts well, while a darker roast adds some complexity to the cup.

About: Historically, Mexican coffee was viewed as an inexpensive, low-grown blender with cup characteristics including a nuttiness, chocolate, and generally mild citric acid. However, today, high-grown Mexican coffee has extremely interesting complex citric and malic acidity, balanced sweetness in the form of chocolate and toffee, and an overall clean cup.

Being such a large producing country and relatively close to visit, Mexico is bursting with potential. The climate and altitude conditions are excellent for specialty coffee, and every year more efforts are made to not just find it, but improve it, and of course to then protect it from dangers like leaf rust and ojo de gallo. Throughout the countryside you find a number of nurseries hosting stronger, better varieties that will lead to a sustainable focus on quality and consistency.

The diversity throughout the country leaves endless possibilities for new, exciting cup profiles.  Lot separation, altitude separation, variety separation—all are being tried more and more, with great results. We believe that some of the biggest opportunities and the most potential is basically there with our next-door neighbors to the south, and our suppliers continue to nurture relationships with growers there—specifically within the Chiapas region—to empower and encourage them as they continue to overcome the obstacles of the past 15 to 20 years.

Cristal is one positive result of this effort, as it represents an amalgam of coffees from across Mexico’s best growing regions, including Veracruz, Oaxaca, and Chiapas. Therefore, these coffees are mild in profile and affordable, which makes them versatile as blend components as well as straightforward options for a clean, easy-drinking single origin offering.

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