Rafael Garcia Garcia ~ Bourbon & Typica from Oaxaca, Mexico

About Rafael

Rafael’s take on an exceptionally sweet clean washed Typica/Bourbon (an increasingly rare thing) is a task nearly ten years in the making. This story starts with Adam McClellan (Red Fox) a decade ago, then just starting to buy coffee in Guadalupe, Miramar, Oaxaca where he first met Rafael (if you’d like to read further on the state of coffee in Oaxaca, and Mexico at large, Adam’s Journal post – linked here –  is a good short read for additional context).

“It was the first place in Mexico I visited and to this day I still feel it has some of the best quality in all of Mexico and have gone back multiple times each year since.” – Adam

In 2014, Rafael had just returned to live in Miramar for good after spending many years as a migrant farm worker in the United States, making the precarious trip each year to work in the PNW alongside the other (mainly men) members of his indigenous Mixteca community. His work was picking berries, onions, asparagus and other produce.

In his last year working in the US, he unfortunately got a health curveball he couldn’t have predicted, resulting in him needing emergency surgery. With incredible luck, he happened to meet a woman in the US who offered to pay for his surgery and subsequent hospital recovery, saving his life.

Adam shares with us:

“Upon returning to Miramar, he was extremely determined to make coffee growing a profitable enterprise as he really had no other means of income, but had never farmed or produced coffee before. Rafael is always one of the most humble and vocal participants in the organized group meetings which work together to market and move their coffee to Red Fox, he has always asked for more advice, to buyers, to fellow farmers and technicians, on what steps to take to get higher cupping scores, which in turn translate to higher prices. Although all have heirloom Bourbon and Typica varieties planted and thriving under a full native shade canopy, several farms in Miramar which perennially fetch higher cupping scores, are blessed with huge altitude, 1800-1900 masl, but Rafael is at a slight disadvantage in that front at around 1500 masl. After almost ten years of working and investing in his farm, including implementing drip irrigation and other techniques learned working in the US, as well as making adjustments and tweaks to post harvest processing, he for the first time in 2023 harvest qualified in the blind offer sample cupping for the top tier of score/price.”

About Miramar

Guadalupe Miramar is a small, growing town looking out over the sierra to the southwest towards the Pacific ocean, in the Mixteca region of Oaxaca, near the bustling city of Tlaxiaco close to the border of Guerrero state. Mixteca is one of the 16 different indigenous cultures within Oaxaca alone, and in Miramar where the Mixteca language is still maintained, spoken and taught in schools. Farmers here are very willing to re-invest in productivity, raised bed drying, nurseries, and other infrastructure towards better quality coffee.

Processing

Processing is mostly traditionally washed, but cherry is always perfectly ripe, floated, and fermented slightly before de-plulping and then fermented without water for another 24-48 hours.