This direct trade micro lot comes from the west coast region of Nayarit, Mexico. Farmed and picked by the El Malinal community of about 850 people on the southwest slope of Cerro Jan Juan, an extinct volcano that lies between Nayarites capital of Tepic and the Pacific Ocean. From the coffee drying patios you can see the Pacific Ocean.

El Malinal is just one of a number of communities that lie within Terruno Nayarita, all of which share the same spectacular growing conditions and agricultural polycultures. Each farmer owns at the very most around an acre sized plots and thus the attention to detail paid to this coffee is the first-class from picking to bagging could not be replicated by machine. We are going to offer this coffee roasted 3 ways, for filter drip, espresso and something a little different – a mélange of the espresso and drip. Let me explain…

Roasted and brewed as a filter drip the coffee is just so sweet in the cup, a candied sweetness, in fact very sweet, some background acidity, baker’s chocolate, red berries and a little orange zest and some floral notes with a smooth long finish. Roasted and brewed as espresso there is dark chocolate, nuts (hazelnut), turning delicately citrusy sweet with a chocolate-toned finish.

Chocolate also dominates in milk and nut-toned. Blended and brewed as a mélange of both roasts we are able to bring together the body from the espresso roast profile and the sweetness from the filter profile which makes the cup deeper toned with chocolate.

The espresso roast profile ended only 2 degrees higher than the filter drip, but was a longer roast by 2.3 mins – we did this to build body into the coffee and the filter drip we extended out the Maillard (Maillard reactio) as long as we could to build sweetness and wow on both counts.