High altitude coffee from the mountains of Guerrero

Guerrero is the fifth largest coffee producing state in Mexico, and much of its coffee grows in the Sierra Madre del Sur, in the shade and the mist. The main regions are the Costa Grande, the Costa Chica and La Montaña. It is a coffee with more than a century of history, very close to Acapulco.

Where it grows

• Costa Grande: the mountains of Atoyac de Álvarez, Coyuca de Benítez and Tecpan de Galeana. This is the best known region.
• Costa Chica: towns like San Luis Acatlán.
• La Montaña: Malinaltepec and Iliatenco, among others.

Most growers are small farmers with family plots passed down from one generation to the next.

How coffee reached the mountains

In Atoyac, coffee was formally planted in 1891. A local grower traveled to Tapachula, Chiapas, learned how to grow and process it, and came back to plant the first trees near La Soledad. Coffee has been part of life in the mountains ever since.

Many farms are more than 50 years old and still grow traditional arabica varieties such as bourbon.

What high altitude coffee means

In Mexico, coffee grown above roughly 900 meters is called café de altura, or high altitude coffee. In the Sierra de Atoyac, coffee growing communities start above 700 meters, and the farms go much higher.

Altitude matters because the cold and mist make the coffee cherries ripen more slowly. The beans come out denser and more flavorful, with more pleasant acidity, more aroma and more body.

How it tastes

Shade grown coffee from these mountains often has notes of wood, damp earth and fruit, with hints of citrus, banana or cinnamon. It is a balanced coffee that works well black or in café de olla.

Something few people know

The shade coffee farms of the Sierra de Atoyac are home to a hummingbird found nowhere else in the world: the short crested coquette. It lives in a strip of about 25 kilometers, between 900 and 1,800 meters, and is critically endangered. Coffee grown under trees is part of what keeps its habitat alive.

When it is harvested

The harvest runs from November to March, during the dry season. That is when new coffee reaches roasters in the region.