Mexico Chiapas Finca Nuevo Semi-Wash

PROCESSING: Washed
ALTITUDE: 1200-1350m

DESCRIPTION:

This semi washed coffee is first floated in water to rinse surface dirt and separate floaters before being added to 9000 liter tanks. The cherries are held for 88 hours in an oxygen deprived environment and then pulped and sent through an Ecowasher (demucilager) to mechanically remove most of the mucilage from the parchment. The semi-washed parchment is then put through a Centriflux machine to remove most of the water on the outside of the parchment. This coffee is then set to dry on traditional patios where it is constantly turned to promote even drying for 6 to 8 days pending weather conditions.

Finca Nuevo México has 75 hectares of coffee planted plus 370 hectares of preserved land within the El Triunfo Biosphere Reserve. Finca Nuevo México has RFA, Bird Friendly and CAFE Practices certifications. The farm ranges from about 1200 to 1350 meters above sea level where Don Ricardo and his family produce mostly Obata, Tupi, Caturra, AnaCafe 14, Catuai, Catimor and Sarchimor varieties.
Their extreme control of the fermentation and drying process is obvious in the resulting clean cups with amazing sweetness and body.

Finca Nuevo México was founded by Don Ricardo Baumann in 1964, who immigrated to Mexico from Germany in 1927. Ricardo Baumann was a mechanical technician, so when he arrived in Mexico he offered his services to various coffee farms in the Soconusco region in Chiapas. After years of gaining experience and knowledge while working on coffee farms, he ventured out to acquire his own land.
From 1955 Don Ricardo Baumann dedicated himself to coffee production, and in 1964 he acquired Finca Nuevo México. Don Ricardo passed away in February 1974 and his daughter Ilse Baumann inherited the farm. She convinced her son Ricardo Ibarra (named in honor of his grandfather) to study agronomy to one day take over the farm.

In 1986 Ricardo Ibarra, the grandson of Mr. Ricardo Baumann, studied and graduated as an Agricultural Engineer. The day after receiving his diploma he set out on his way back to Chiapas, where he found a practically abandoned farm with minimal production. It was going to need a lot of work.

By 2016, after many years of dedicated effort, Finca Nuevo México had increased the coffee plantations and achieved production yields that set records in the country. This attention to quality and productivity is what struck us most when we first met Don Ricardo and his sons.

Today, Don Ricardo is joined by his sons to continue investing in the success of coffee grown on the farm.  Each step of the process is constantly being reviewed by the Ibarra family and farm manager Rolando to find opportunities for improvement. Ricardo’s son Carlos told us “if we can improve just 1% each year, over time we will have grown a lot.”