This coffee comes from Mexican processing legend Enrique Eduardo Lopez Aguilar and his farm Finca Chelin. In his own words: "I love to be innovative. For more than 12 years I have enjoyed discovering different flavour notes and sensory attributes in the same coffee, which is only achieved by trying different methods of washed, honey and natural processing, as well as experimenting with variations of these same processes".

We were very fortunate to meet Enrique (virtually) at a cupping organised by the importer Raw Material last October with their in-country partner Red Beetle. Enrique told us a story about the farm name: "This Finca was founded in 1896 and was one of the first on Candelaria-Loxicha municipality to grow coffee. My grandparents from my mother side were form Candelaria and they were coffee growers too since 1913 with Finca La Oaxaqueña where my mother was born. My mother´s name was Graciela, it is a tradition to call the women with this name “Chela”, and my grandfather that was Spaniard, when my mother was a little girl, he called her “Chelin” like "small Chela". In May 2012 I purchased this Finca named Tierra Colorada, but to honour my mother memories, I called it Finca Chelin".

This coffee is very different for a number of reasons. First up it's processed as a “hydro-natural natural”, and secondly it is a variety we've not come across before, Pluma Hidalgo. Pluma Hidalgo is a 19th-century offshoot of Typica grown by displaced indigenous farmers in the mid-1800s. There are even efforts to obtain Denomination of Origin status for Oaxacan Pluma Hidalgo.

We reached out to Enrique to get a better handle on the process and he sent us this through: "Only ripe cherries are cut. They are immersed in clean water, the floating cherries are removed and the water is drained. They are allowed to rest for 1 night and the next day they are taken to the patio for 2 days in direct sun and 1 day with a shade net. That afternoon they return to the wet mill and place the cherries in rotoplates with a little water to rehydrate. the cherries, the next day they are taken back to the patio to begin drying for 3 days in direct sun, then they are placed in a patio with 50% shade mesh for another 25 days approximately". If you want to know, ask the producer !

Each of Oaxaca’s seven coffee producing regions has a different microclimate, but all have ideal conditions to grow and produce excellent coffees. Oaxaca has a very mountainous geography, mainly through the Sierra Madre del Sur, and thousands of hectares, which Enrique describes as “fog forest”: dense, plentiful land with a magical appeal as fog creeps over hilltops in the mornings and evenings. The majority of coffees are cultivated at 1000 metres above sea level, but there are places that cultivate coffee higher than 1500 metres above sea level. The region is home to many smallholder farmers and producers that share one or two hectares of land, and many produce “extraordinary coffees”, including Enrique’s own Finca Chelín.