Vista Espresso - Mexico, Zongolica - Washed

While this coffee is sold under the name of Zongolica, which is the nearest large town in the area, these growers are situated around the smaller hamlets of Colonia Nuevo Progreso and Tlecuaxco in the municipality of Tequila.

These growers are all Nahua indigenous, led by Josue Oltehua and his family, and have been working for the last ten years to transition from selling in cherry to the local intermediaries - primarily this same Cafes California as well as others - and have been able to achieve some success via a local NGO that trained them in post-harvest processing. This connection with the NGO led the female growers to see the opportunity to create a better future for themselves in coffee and it was their insistence that pushed the community forward to continue to work on processing their coffee to parchment. 

In recent years, the leadership of this NGO has begun their own commercialization arm known as Cafes Cooperativo who seeks to connect these coffees in their parchment form to local and international buyers. Despite their efforts, however,  the Zongolica growers have had limited success and are largely selling their coffees to the domestic Mexican market in cities like Guadalajara and Mexico City.  

Coffees are picked at peak ripeness and are left to ferment in tanks for 48 hours before depulping. After depulping, the seeds undergo an additional dry fermentation of 24 hours. They are then rinsed and moved to a dry on nylon for 6 - 10 days.