Cofradía De Chocolón, Mexico

Introducing our first full-circle relationship coffee, all the way from seed to cup. Our roaster worked closely within the CALDIO Society in Xalisco, Mexico in 2022 subsidiary of the Grupo Terruno Nayarita (GTN). This nit community has  banded together to produce ethically processed natural coffees free of voilence and corruption. In the cup we are tasting notes of earl gray, tropical fruits and a winey syrupy body.

From the importer San Cristobal Coffee Importers:

Cofradía de Chocolón was founded in 1942 when the Mexican government approved settlers from the nearby town of Tacote to form an Ejdo*. The original townspeople earned a living making charcoal and raising cattle. Coffee production came to the town in the mid 1960's later followed by the arrival of sugarcane in the 1980's. Cofradía is home to the CALDIO society with whom CAFESUMEX and San Cristobal Importers have been working intensively for the past nine years. Over that time this relationship has helped to improve quality and offer higher and more stable coffee prices. We have seen a slow but steady increase in the size of the CALDIO society over the years. While some minority of the residents of Cofradía still participate in the "traditional" coffee economy, in which they sell their cherries at low prices to regional buyers, many have log reaped the rewards of implementing strict coffee quality controls and participating in the Grupo Terruño Nayarita cooperative structure.

"At the beginning people didn't believe in the system. Little by little people are changing their way of thinking." - Sr. Saul, Secretary of CALDIO

*An Ejido is a community comprised of communal lands designated for agricultural production. Each Ejidatario (joint land owner/farmer) has individual rights to a parcel of land or parcela, these rights can continue indefinitely and be passed on to their children, as long as the land is under consistent cultivation. With its ideology dating back to the calpulli system of the Aztecs, the Ejido system was established by the Mexican government in 1934. The establishment of an Ejido would begin with landless farmers who typically leased lands from wealthy landlords petitioning the government. The government would then consult with the landlord, and redistribute the land if the Ejido was approved. The Ejido would then be established, designating the original petitioners as Ejidatarios with individual rights to the land. Each Ejido is registered with Mexico's National Agrarian Registry (Registro Agrario Nacional). The Ejido system was eliminated in 1991, citing low productivity of communally owned land. While existing Ejidos were not disbanded and remain to this day, it is largely viewed that their elimination was a direct result of the NAFTA (North American Free Trade Agreement) of 1994.

Producing Societies

CALDIO was established as a society on November 30th, 2010 in the community of Cofradia de Chocolon. CAFESUMEX and San Cristobal Coffee Importers have been working with CALDIO off and on for the last nine years, collaborating to improve coffee quality and establish strict coffee production process controls. By focusing on quality coffee CALDIO has provided better and more stable coffee prices to its producing members.

Associates of CALDIO gather weekly in the town hall, where the organization also maintains a small office. Additionally, CALDIO owns and operates the El Pantano wet mill, located just outside of town. The president of CALDIO is Sr. Alfredo Pulido Soto.

It is currently comprised of 83 members, 66 men and 17 women and covers a coffee growing area of 150 hecters or 371 acres.

Wet Processing Mill -  El Pantano

Operator - Saúl Pulido

El Pantano is the wet processing mill where much of the coffee from the town of Cofradía de Chocolón is processed and dried. The coffee is brought to the mill by farmers in cherry form, and most of it is processed into parchment as a washed coffee. This process removes the outer pulp and mucilage from the cherry before being set out to dry on the patios. While on the patios, the coffee is rotated every half hour to ensure even drying. Once the coffee parchment reaches optimal humidity, it is stored temporarily in the mill’s warehouse and then transported to the El Duende Dry Mill for further processing as well as blending for sale and export.
 
The El Pantano Wet Mill is owned and operated by the CALDIO Society.

Dry Processing Mill - El Duende

Operator - Antonio Ibarra

Owned and operated by CAFESUMEX, the El Duende Dry Mill is where all of the coffee comes to be hulled, cleaned, sorted, prepared and bagged for export. Once lots are sampled, roasted and cupped using FincaLab, the Quality Control Team uses the resulting scores to develop a work order that is sent to the famous Antonio Ibarra--who has run the mill for the past fifteen years. The work order contains information as to which lots to blend and how to process them. 

There are also three large African drying beds (“camas africanas”) located at the El Duende Mill. These are used only when all other wet mill patio space is saturated; or if FincaLab grading results indicate a lot needs to be pulled from dry storage for continued drying. 

• Each lot comes to the mill in parchment form (washed coffee) or as a dried cherry (natural or un-washed coffee).
• A work order is made from FincaLab’s SCA-standard grading and cupping results to contract requirements; this work order entails how to mix and process each lot.
• When blending is required, the bags in the lots to be mixed are laid out in rows according to the work order ratios.
• The blended coffee passes through a mechanical huller that removes the parchment or dried cherry from the bean. Once the parchment or cherry skin is removed, the coffee is placed through a winnower (or catador in Spanish) that helps to clean the coffee by blowing air though the beans to remove chaff and lightweight fragments.
• Now clean and green, the coffee is placed on a Brazilian Pinhalense mechanical screen sorter (one of a handful in all of Mexico) that separates the beans based on size and shape (flat sided or peaberries).
• The coffee is then separated based on density (the denser the better) by the “gravity table.” This machine uses vibration and a rising column of air to partially levitate the beans and sort them by density.
• The coffee is then separated into different grades (Grade 0, 1, 2, 3 etc.) based on defect content.
• Finally, the coffee passes through a Satake compact optical sorter in order to also categorize the beans by color. Here, otherwise undetectable defected beans (normally yellow or black in color) can be removed to further improve quality and broca (insect damaged) beans can be targeted for removal.
• Once the coffee has been mixed, graded, and bagged, a 100% internet traceable track-your-coffee label is attached to prepare the coffee for export!