This lot is quite unusual, not because of the region it is from or the fact it arrives later in the season than other Mexican lots. It's unusual because it is a full natural, dry-process coffee from Mexico. Actually, dry-process Mexico coffees can be found in many small markets across Mexico, since it is the cheapest way to process coffee. And those can be some of the nastiest Mexican coffees you have ever tasted, full of defect black beans, rotted fruit fermented flavors, phenolic fungus taste. Ironically, dry-process coffee, done right, is much more difficult and more costly that a more technified wet-process lot. To do it right, you need to pick ripe red coffee cherry, quickly and carefully dry it in the husk, remove that peel, and then hand-sort defective beans, requiring many hours of labor. Wet-process removes defects with machines ... under-ripe cherries float, other defects are removed on the gravity separator and screening machines. To make a really good dry-process it is all done manually, by highly experienced people. Anyway, the coffee is from the same location as the Terruno Wet-Process from earlier in the season. It is from the state of Nayarit, more specifically, west of the capital, Tepic. The 260 small-holder farms in this group are clustered around Cerro San Juan, an extinct volcano, so the soil type and altitude contribute to the cup quality. Nayarit is fairly low (the city of Tepic is 3000 feet) but the volcano immediately rises to 7000 feet, providing sloped terrain with good altitude, drainage and climate for the coffee. The aromatics of this coffee are much closer to a dry-processed Ethiopia than to any other Central America coffee; intense, rustic fruited notes, spice, and caramel sweetness. It's winey in the extreme, almost headed in the direction of oxidized wine (ie. getting vinegary!) ... but thankfully it's not. There's a hint of sourdough yeast (!) in the dry fragrance, but it is dominated by cocoa, fruit and a hint of shredded sweet coconut in the lighter roasts, with darker roasts having chocolate and pungent spicy scents. The cup, especially at the darker roast levels I prefer here, has a heavy chocolate character with traces of almond and (of course) a strongly fruited backdrop. Lighter roasts have an apricot brandy flavor, and fresh almond roast tone. At both levels, the body is dense and opaque; the aftertaste is extremely long. It's quite intense, and perhaps a shock when cupped side-by-side with other Mexican coffees of the wet-process variety. It has sweetness, but of such a funky type it is hard to score as such, a deep fruity sweetness that nears wine-like character. Unlike other natural coffees, I think this coffee is limited in its espresso use, except as a component in a blend less than 20%.



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