Dia del Cafeticultor

Inaugural ceremony with leaders from the sponsoring coffee organizations.

“What we do is an art,” explains coffee grower Don Manuel Eduardo Juárez. He talks about ways to add value to each stage of production by paying greater attention to quality. By picking coffee berries when they are ripe, farmers can receive greater revenue for two reasons. For one, berries weigh more when ripe so farmers can sell more kilograms of coffee. Second, the ripened berries have more time for flavors to develop, which makes for higher quality coffee. There is an economic incentive for coffee growers to pay more attention quality. This was one of the many take-home lessons from el Día del Cafeticultor, a daylong workshop on sustainable coffee management.

Workshop on coffee quality by CAFECOL

Nearly three hundred coffee growers from surrounding regions of Veracruz attended the workshop. The event was hosted by the national institute of research on forestry, agriculture, and livestock (INIFAP) and co-sponsored by an alphabet soup of academic and governmental institutions: INECOL, CAFECOL, AMECAFE, UV, SAGARPA, and CONACYT. Workshops spanned topics from soil composition and pest control to diversification of fruit trees on coffee plantations. There were also art classes for kids, a photography exhibit, pastry demo, and documentary screening.  Aside from the jitter of one too many coffee samples, I walked away from the event with a better sense of the significance of coffee in terms of economics and culture for the 90,000 families who depend on its production in Veracruz. 

A coffee grower smells the difference of high quality coffee beans.

El Suspiro del Catador

Since winning the Taza de Excelencia (Cup of Excellence) in May 2012, Don Artemio Zapata’s Tejeda’s life has changed. He still lives in Pacho Viejo, the small village where he grew up and raised his family, and still operates the coffee plantations that he inherited fro his parents. However, he is now internationally recognized for producing the world’s finest roasted coffee.

The Taza de Excelencia is an international coffee tasting competition that was hosted in Mexico for the first time this year. The winning coffees are chosen through a stiff competition by national and international judges who are professional trained Q-graders (similar to wine sommeliers). Most significantly for Veracruz, this competition brought international recognition to the high-quality coffee of this region.

I was fortunate to spend the day with Don Artemio and visit his coffee plantation. He is a spirited entrepreneur and cares deeply about the quality of his coffee. With the increased revenue from winning the competition, he and his wife recently opened the first coffee shop in Pacho Viejo. He still operates the coffee plantation almost single-handedly, with the exception of harvest season when he hires a few extra helpers. His hope is that his son or daughter will eventually take over the business.

As we walked through his coffee plantation, he explained how this place is like his sanctuary. He comes here to escape the outside world and contemplate the natural beauty. “Even the ground is alive,” he says, noting the billions of living organisms in the soil. He tries to avoid using any pesticides or chemicals because it takes away from the natural excellence of his coffee. Pride, I could see, is what makes his coffee taste so good.

He sent me off with a small ziplock bag of ripe coffee berries. I tried to protest, explained that airport security would never let me through. “Just tell them you need to do a little scientific experience,” he reassured, “and that you want to bring home the taste and aroma of Pancho Viejo.”

A Walk Through Tropical Gardens

There are many terms to describe green spaces in Spanish: jardín is usually a space for ornamental plants such as a botanical garden; huerta is a plot for growing vegetables and herbs, usually near a house; parque is a recreational park that can also double as a botanical garden; granja refers to a small farm and hacienda and rancho can be larger agricultural plots.  Often, these spaces have overlapping functions: ecological, recreational, alimentary, aesthetic, urban design and cultural expression. In my walks through Xalapa, I have seen green spaces of all shapes and purposes.

Courtyard garden

Parque Estatal Francisco Javier Clavijero (INECOL)

Parque los Tecajetes

A windowsill garden

From a backyard garden

Parque Estatal Francisco Javier Clavijero (INECOL) 

Regional Meeting of Coffee Producers

What is sustainable coffee? At the Casú Coffee House, a sustainable cup of joe has the following characteristics:

1. Environmental stewardship (grow the coffee in shaded conditions to promote biodiversity; avoid the use of agrochemicals; and minimize production of waste)
2. High quality (ensure that the product has a sophisticated taste and is healthy for the consumer)
3. Social well being (promote the coffee culture and build community cohesion)
4. Fair prices (give producers financial security to ride price volatility)

From the coffee farmers’ perspective, price stability is the most immediate concern.  At the meeting of coffee growers in Veracruz, I listened to regional leaders’ call for more structural organization and unification. They feel marginalized by dominating coffee industries and want to the system to better favor the small producer. During today’s brainstorming session they discussed strategies for the upcoming national coffee forum. They will represent the voice of the hundreds of coffee producers in Veracruz. 

Café y Chocolate

Six espressos later (over a two-day period), I am buzzing not just from the caffeine. My project on sustainable shade-grown coffee began with a meeting at the Agroecological Center for Coffee (CAFECOL), an interdisciplinary research center dedicated to promoting sustainable coffee production in Veracruz. I met with the Director Dr. Gerardo Hernández Martínez, researcher Fany Escamilla Femat, and Dr. Robert Manson from the Institute of Ecology (INECOL). They were eager to have an economist at the table to bounce ideas. For the Mexican coffee industry to become more competitive in the global market, there is a need to improve production in terms of volume and quality. CAFECOL has done considerable efforts in terms of leading workshops and providing land management training to the coffee farmers. Their next step is to conduct a thorough economic analysis on marketing opportunities and price mechanisms. It was a fairly productive conversation until the point when they asked about coffee futures. Sadly, even my background in economics could not answer how to stop speculations from cutting into the profit margin of the small producer.

On the way back, I nearly caused a traffic accident in crossing the street to a chocolate shop called “Schatz.” It is rare to find a high-end chocolate shop in Mexico, but to my disappointment they import their chocolate from Belgium. I sampled the two truffles with a more Mexican flare: tequila and café.

Sopa de todo

One of the best things about having a kitchen in the apartment is shopping in the local markets and bringing Mexican flavor to my own cooking. I decided on a simple dish that could adapt to seasonal variety: sopa de todo (an "everything" stone soup).  With the sketch of a recipe in mind, I headed off to the local market.

Step 1: Gather vegetables, eggs, and other ingredients. This was my excuse to visit as many of the small produce stands as possible and informally learn cooking techniques from the vendors. What is this vegetable called? How do you cook it? My mom taught me this trick from her weekly visits to the farmers’ market. It took me two trips back and forth to the market to purchase all the ingredients, and the last trip involved very gently carrying a bag of raw eggs.

Step 2: Wash ingredients, and cook everything in a big pot. Having learned from my Mexican host mom a couple years ago, I was careful to rinse all the vegetables in sanitized water. Then I attempted to stuff my ambitiously large vegetable purchase of carrots, onion, spinach, chayote, tiny red potatoes, Swiss chard, zucchini, and cilantro into a large pot. Separately, I cooked lentil soup with tomatillos and onion.

Step 3: Let simmer and slowly enjoy.

Tamales para el Día de los Muertos

“Tamales tamales. Tamales tamales,” yells a street vendor. Groggily, I come to my senses and smile when I remember that I am back in Mexico. The familiar sounds and smells awake me.

My sense of time is thrown off by the international travels and a red-eye bus ride from Mexico City airport to Xalapa. Shortly after dawn, I arrive at Suites Jazmin, where the owner Miguel Luis Gonzáles greets me in his bathrobe and slippers. He leads me through the central courtyard of orange trees, roses, banana trees, and a fountain to the three-story apartment complex. From my apartment balcony, I look out to a sea of hanging laundry, brightly colored houses with potted plants, and dogs wandering through the neighborhood. This is Mexico, I think to myself.

After showing me around the apartment and explaining a large set of skeleton keys, Miguel extends a typical gesture of Mexican hospitality: “¿Te gusta la comida mexicana?” (Do you like Mexican cuisine?). He happens to have extra tamales from yesterday’s celebrations of el Día de los Muertos. During this festival of the dead, families gather to share pan de muertos (a sweet bread), hot chocolate, tamales, and other regional foods. Families decorate altars with flowers and offerings of food to invite their ancestors to symbolically share the meal and take part in the celebrations. Despite arriving the day after el Día de los Muertos and missing most of the celebration, I am still able to taste one of the traditional festival foods: tamales.

That night I as crawl into bed, I hear a familiar call from the street: “Tamales tamales.” 

Altar decorated with flowers for el Día de los Muertos

Traditional altar foods: sweet bread, tamales, and fruit

Día de los Muertos decorations

Riding "el piojito," a street car that gives historical tours of Xalapa.