Mexico Santa Fé

After working 40 years for one of Mexico's largest coffee farms, Don Cardenas Sr. received several plots of land as a retirement gift from his lifelong employer. With unwavering dedication, he applied his extensive knowledge to transform this land into modern coffee plantations.

In 2007, Don Cardenas’ sons, Jaime and Juan Carlos, took over the farm operations, carrying forward their father's legacy. The expansive coffee plantations, totaling over 15 hectares, are organized into plots, each exhibiting diverse characteristics in terms of altitude, varietals, and soil profiles. Harvested and processed separately, the coffee lots from each parcel maintain the unique essence of their terroir.

In Santa Fé, the primary cultivated varieties include Bourbon, Caturra, and Catimors. The gradual introduction of Catimors in 2014 and 2015 aimed to enhance overall plantation resistance to coffee rust in the absence of chemical fertilizers.

Processing:

Ripe cherries are manually picked and delivered every evening to the farm’s wet mill;

Cherries are floated in fresh water to be sorted by density and cleansed of impurities;

Cherries are pulped and the beans are separated from the cascara;

Pulped beans are placed in open-air tanks to ferment in water for 36 hours;

Coffee is fully washed and floated through water channels to remove low-density or damaged beans;

Parchment coffee is dried on open-air patios for 10 to 15 days until it reaches the optimal moisture level of 11.5%.