Mexico Cerro La Bruja

12 oz recyclable valve bag

Barista's Choice

Origin: Mexico

Producer: Cerro La Bruja
Municipality: San Vicente Yogondoy
Process: Washed
Variety: Pluma
Elevation: 1600 MASL

Tasting Notes:
Cranberry, Hazelnut, Chocolate

Roaster's Notes

Our team has been looking for a way to motivate education amongst our barista staff, it has been a goal that has changed and adjusted in the last few years. After many hours of conversation and brainstorming we have come upon this Barista's Choice program. The spirit of this coffee is for our baristas to come together as a team and learn about sourcing coffees from across the globe, seasonality, processing, and tasting for purchasing. 

Our last Barista's Choice was our proof of concept, tested by a select few of the Front of House staff, however with this coffee we worked with each store directly. They tasted four different coffees from across the globe, and voted overwhelmingly for this delicious coffee from Oaxaca, Mexico. 

Cerro La Bruja is a community of coffee farmers in one of the most remote areas of Mexico. In the community of San Vicente Yogondoy (a 5 hour drive from Oaxaca City), go two-three hours further into the mountains to find Cerro La Bruja. In the off season the farmers commute in from San Vicente by mule or on foot but during the harvest season they live onsite to make sure the coffees are picked and processed perfectly. 

Yogondoy's indigenous Zapotec traditions and language are alive and well. In Zapotec: Yogondoy means "River of Bees" and many of the farmers keep beehives for honey production and pollination for all of their crops. A lot of the coffee farmers in Cerro La Bruja have younger coffee trees that were planted in the last 5 seasons and they continue the tradition of growing 100% Pluma variety coffees. 

Pluma variety is an offshoot of Typica that has grown locally in Oaxaca for the last 80 years. Pluma thrives in these conditions, soil and climate, producing a spectacular cup quality. Many of the farmers in Cerro La Bruja are under the age of 30 and are a guiding light for the future of coffee in Oaxaca. 

Another amazing Zapotec tradition is called "Tequio", which is a practice of communal workshare that comes into play during harvest and in off-season renovations.

As the coffee buyer for Victrola I am proud of our baristas in selecting (blind selecting!) a coffee that helps create good in our coffee community and basically fills every checkmark I have for our single origin sourcing program. This is an educational program for our baristas to gain a greater understanding of the supply chain and with this coffee I believe they have gone above and beyond my expectations.