From the Roaster's Corner:
Seasonal: 'Women's Coffee', Rosalda Cifuentes: Mayan Harvest Coffee - Chiapas, Mexico
This coffee is produced by Mayan Harvest Coffee, founded and managed by an incredible woman, Rosalda Cifuentes Tovia. It is produced in Bella Vista, a small municipality in the heart of the Sierra of Chiapas, in the South of Mexico, bordering Guatemala. Its population is about 2,000 people and it is filled with beautiful landscapes of green highlands and rich clay mineral soil. Rosalba works with producers who are family and neighbors in the town of Bella Vista in order to improve their harvesting and processing practices and in return, get more competitive prices for their coffee. Rosalba works tirelessly to provide a livelihood to its members by providing them with medical and dental assistance. Her organization has grown to be around 100 producers, about 60 of which are women.
She has intentionally divided her production into three coffee groups. Women’s Coffee or “Cafe de Mujeres” is a group of women farmers that reside in the municipality of Bella Vista. Rosalba says that in those areas with women farmers, there is a lot of “machismo”, male chauvinism, and sadly this results in women being isolated. With this project in mind, Rosalda hopes to improve the image of the women producers, bring collaboration with other women in a supportive community and promote their work.
Rosalda's coffee quality is exceptional, but even more so, we were captivated by her life story. When sharing it, she opens with: 'Behind every cup of coffee, there are faces, hands and dedication. But above all, there are stories, and this is mine...'
Rosalda has grew up in poverty in Bella Vista at the Chiapa region. She worked in hard labour daily, her mother caved in one day to the hardship and abandoned her children. At the age of 12 she was forced to live with abusive relatives, working odd jobs, barely surviving. But she had big dreams and vowed to defeat her grim destiny. At 16, alone, illiterate and a female, she escaped and managed to travel to the US, determined to forge a path of independence and self respect, which she found in 2016, when Rosalba Tovia, the orphan from Chiapas with the Mayan roots, would return to her native land and help her family and community to develop their coffee production and thrive.
You can watch her story below or read it here.
About the Coffee
- Country: Mexico
- Region: Chiapas
- Producer: Rosalba Cifuentes, Mayan Harvest
- Crop year: 2019
- Altitude: 1550 masl
- Process: Fully washed
- Varietal: Bourbon and Typica
- Grade: SHG EP
Tasting notes: Orange Blossom • Floral • Chocolate Sweet • Citric Acidity
Roasted for espresso and filter
If you like your beans to be ground, please let us know in the order comments at checkout what coffee maker you have. If it's an espresso machine, please state the make and model.
