Mexico, Ohuapan

The Story Behind the Coffee

Ohuapan is a small community located in the Tlaltetela district. Ohuapan is located in the highest reaches of Tlaltetela. The farms in this community have an average size of 10 hectares per producer. During the harvest season the producers here use family labor to meet all their needs. Typical shade trees used include native trees such as banana and ice cream bean trees. The varieties planted in the area are Bourbon, Garnica (a distinct Veracruz variety), and Marsellesa.

Ohuapan's coffee, like the rest of Veracruz, is harvested in cherry. Producers use mules to transport the coffee from the farms to the nearest section of dirt road, then transport the coffee in trucks or ATVs to the nearest collection center. Transit time between farms and the central collection center in Ohuapan varies from 45 minutes to 1 hour.

In the central processing plant, they use spring water to wash the cherry, which they then ferment for 48 hours in concrete tanks, followed by mechanical drying for 60 hours.

For many years, the Tlaltetela area was essentially known for producing undifferentiated-quality coffee in large volumes. Producers in the higher areas like Ohuapan weren’t motivated to continue doing the exhausting work of growing, processing, and selling the special varieties that they had, since in the end they would receive the same price as lower-quality coffees and their coffees would be blended.

After an exhaustive search carried out by Red Fox with the support of local partners, we were able to find the producers in the area that had differentiated coffees and were doing work that necessitated premium prices. This access to a new, differentiated market was a radical shift for the producers in the area since they now had a stable and secure market to sell their products.