PRODUCER: Community Smallholders
REGION: Oaxaca, Mexico
VARIETAL: Pluma
PROCESS: Washed
TASTE: Tangerine, Toffee, Vanilla Cream

A well-planted hill in San Vicente Yogondoy with a particularly notable feature, Cerro La Bruja means "Hill of the Witch" in Spanish. Producers who grow coffee there say its rainy season features many electrical storms at the hill’s highest peak, filling it with lightning that takes several days to dissipate even after the storms end.

Yogondoy’s indigenous Zapotec traditions and language are alive and well. In Zapotec, Yogondoy means "River of Bees," and many local farmers keep beehives for honey and pollination alongside their coffee. Many of the farmers in this group have younger coffee trees that were planted in the last 5 years and continue the tradition of maintaining almost 100% of the Pluma variety, a local mutation of Typica that has grown here for over 80 years. It thrives in these conditions, soil, and climate, producing spectacular cup quality.

Yogondoy is one of the few communities in which we see a year on year increase in both yield and quality. The producers here have invested a lot in their crops for 8 years, and produce nearly double that of many other Mexican coffee-growing areas.