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Informative Articles

All About Coffee Makers
Sometimes coffee makers (as nearly everything) get broken for no apparent reason. When everything seems to be ok on the outside, then the problem must be on the inside, so here are some tips to help you identify the most common problems and, if...

Coffee, A Brief Overview
The coffee plant has two main species. There is the Coffea Arabica, which is the more traditional coffee and considered to be superior in flavor, and the Coffea Canephora known more commonly as Robusta. Robusta tends to be higher in caffeine and...

Coffee: Is It Getting Too Complicated?
Plain coffee is fast becoming a thing of the past. It's now quite simple to whip up a gourmet hot beverage for guest, family, or just for yourself. Nowadays there are a number of coffee clubs and circles in which coffee drinking has become somewhat...

How Much Does A Cup Of Coffee Cost?
Would you believe $465.84? Or more? If you buy a cup of coffee every day for $1.00 (an awfully good price for a decent cup of coffee, nowadays), that adds up to $365.00 a year. If you saved that $365.00 for just one year, and put it into a...

Is Coffee The Most Popular Drink In History?
As far back as 850 A.D it is said that a lonely sheep herder and his charge stumbled across a strange and mysterious berry growing on a secluded and forgotten hillside. Before he could stop them, some of his sheep had already began to sample this...

Make Money In Your Own Coffee Business
A 2001 survey by the National Coffee Association indicated that over 100 million people drink coffee on a daily basis and that nearly 60 million more occasionally consume coffee. Based on average drinking habits, the daily coffee drinker will...

Starbucks Coffee History
To summarize something as phenomenonally successful as Starbucks coffee history might be a challenge. Many volumes have been written on the subject, it is examined and taught in business schools, and whole semesters are dedicated to the marketing...

The Convenience of Coffee At Home!
Coffee is often taken for granted. You get up in the morning, start the brewer, or maybe you own one that can be programmed to brew itself in the am…and ready yourself for your day. But, the convenience of coffee from home gets even easier as...

What is Fair Trade Coffee and Why Should We Buy It?
Today's society is very familiar with fair trade coffee, yet it is unclear whether the true meaning behind the economic, environmental and social impact of purchasing and drinking it is understood. In order to comprehend the full impact fair...

World's Most Bizarre Specialty Coffee
Anyone who lives in a big city these days has seen first-hand the proliferation of 4-dollar-a-shot coffee shops. Thanks to Starbucks and their like coffee has become the number 2 commodity in the world (petroleum is number 1). Grown in dozens of...

 
 
 
History of Mexican Coffee

Mexico has a long history of coffee production as well as its Latin neighbors the south. Mexican coffee is grown mainly in the South central to Southern regions of the country. Coffee from Coatepec and Veracruz is much different from Oaxacan Plumas, which are in turn much different from the southernmost region of Chiapas.

The later is a growing region that borders Guatemala, and you will find similarities between those coffees. In general you can expect a light-bodied coffee, mild but with delicate flavors, but there are exceptions of course. Mexico is one of the largest producers of certified organic coffees, and because of the close proximity, most Mexican coffee is exported to the U.S.

Coffee was introduced into Mexico during the nineteenth century from Jamaica. Mexican coffee is mainly the Arabica varietal, which grows particularly well in the Pacific coastal region of Soconusco, near the Guatemalan border. In the early 1990s, the southern state of Chiapas was Mexico's most important coffee-growing area, producing some 45 percent of the annual crop of 275,000 tons.

More than 2 million Mexicans grew coffee, most barely subsisting. Seventy-five percent of Mexican coffee growers worked plots of fewer than two hectares. These small cultivators produced about 30 percent of the country's annual harvest; larger and more efficient farms produced the

 


rest.

During the 1980s, coffee became Mexico's most valuable export crop. In 1985 coffee growers produced 4.9 million sixty-kilogram bags, and coffee exports earned $882US million at the unusually high world price of $0.90US per kilogram. Thereafter output fluctuated between 5.6 million bags and 4.4 million bags.

As international coffee prices rose further, the government in 1988 encouraged coffee growers, especially in Chiapas, to increase output and expand the area under cultivation. It tried to increase production by offering easy credit to coffee growers and by converting forested land into ejidos for cultivation by poor Mexican coffee growers.

The finest grade of Mexican coffee is "Altura," which means "high-grown." Where coffee is concerned, higher always means better, and the high-grown coffees of Mexico are considered very high-quality indeed and among the finest grown in the Americas.

Mexican coffee drinkers have a unique way of brewing their coffee, many prefer to add a small amount of cinnamon to the ground coffee before brewing, this adds a distinct flavor and also reduces the acidity.

© Copyright Randy Wilson, All Rights Reserved.

About the Author

Randy works with his son on Ultimate Coffees Info. Randy owned and operated a very successful storefront/mailorder business from 1988 to 2003.