RUBEN CERVANTES - MEXICO - ANAEROBIC NATURAL Espresso Recomendation, Highlights

Rubén Cervantes, a third-generation indigenous Mazatec coffee producer, began his coffee journey at 18, helping his father with cherry picking and fieldwork. Together with his wife Rosa Rubio and their children Citlali and Cristián, he has built a diverse operation that includes coffee farming, beekeeping, masonry, and growing various foods.

Situated in Loma Alta, Huautla de Jiménez, Oaxaca, the farms El Lodo and El Derrumbe are surrounded by a cloud forest*, lush vegetation, and the Sierra Madre del Sur mountains, serving as the production centres for Rubén Cervantes' coffee.

Cervantes lives in a mountainous area (1,200-1,400 masl) and cultivates traditional coffee varieties like Typica, Caturra, Bourbon, Mundo Novo, and the rust-resistant Oro Azteca. His two farms, which cover approximately one hectare, resemble small jungles, using a traditional polyculture system with minimal ecosystem intervention. This method enables coffee plants to grow alongside timber trees, legumes, and fruit trees like bananas and citrus, providing multiple layers of shade to the coffee trees protecting them from adverse weather conditions.

They promote a milpa* farming system, an ancient system that mainly includes corn, beans, and squash.

After years of producing washed coffees, Rubén Cervantes began experimenting with natural processing last year. This shift has improved water efficiency, bean quality, and prices. This year marks the first harvest of this naturally processed coffee, and we can’t wait for you to try it!

The changes have been challenging, but Rubén believes they are worthwhile. His coffee score improved significantly, leading to a 20% increase in prices. Most notably, his water usage has dropped significantly. Water is especially valuable this year because of a drought affecting Loma Alta. Rubén provides an example: processing two quintales (200 kilograms) of washed coffee requires 200 litres of water, while the same amount using the natural method requires only about 10 litres—a 95% reduction.

*A cloud forest is a rare, tropical or subtropical, evergreen forest found in high-altitude, mountainous regions. They are characterised by persistent cloud cover, which creates cool, wet conditions and limits plant photosynthesis. Cloud forests are also known as water forests, primas forests, or tropical montane cloud forests

*Milpa is a traditional farming system that involves growing multiple crops together in the same field or plot.