Sierra Mixe - Oaxaca

COMMUNITY: Santiago Atitlan

LOCATION: Oaxaca, Mexico

ALTITUDE: 1600 MASL

VARIETY: Bourbon, Typica

PROCESS: Washed

Tasting Notes: Dried Apricot, Vanilla Custard, Lemon, Brown Sugar

Oaxaca’s Santiago Atitlan region is marked by dense forests and heavy mists with pronounced rainy seasons. Found in the Sierra Mixe district of the Sierra Norte province, the coffees that come from here reflect communal hard work, great altitude, preserved local varieties, rich soil, and the slow maturation that the area’s cooling mists and strong shade cover offer. 

To get to Atitlan, we have to drive from Oaxaca for 4.5 hours. Most of the route is paved but the last half hour consists of dirt roads. In Atitlan, the houses are mostly roadside while the farms are up in the mountains, accessible only on foot or by mule. The road from the houses to the farms can take up to an hour’s climb in many cases.

Atitlan’s producers are extreme smallholders, farming 1-2 hectares on average. They carry out harvest among their families and community. The farms are located in altitudes ranging between 1400 and 1600 masl. Producers here mostly grow Typica and Bourbon varieties. Most producers plant corn, timber trees, and bananas as supplements to coffee. They also raise farm animals for family consumption.

Atitlan's producers have their own washing stations at their houses, where they ferment their  coffee in wooden tanks for 12-20 hours, then dry them for 8-10 days on patios.

They usually keep a distance of 2 meters between rows and 1.5 meters between seedlings. Between each row, the producers place a plant that serves to separate the rows and keep the coffee trees apart.

Producers use native trees such as ice cream bean trees and avocado to shade their coffee trees. These trees provide not only shade, but also various benefits such as food, ornamentation, medicine, construction materials, nitrogen fixing, and water retention.=

The producers in the Atitlan area speak the native Mixe language. They take pride in their language, their lands, their customs, and their culture. The producers here are driven by a strong, healthy competitiveness that pushes them toward constant improvement year over year, which we at Red Fox try to support and encourage. 

Red Fox’s relationship with the Atitlan area began in 2021 when 5 people from the community visited the Red Fox offices in Oaxaca trying to find better markets to position their coffee, which they were sure were of superior quality. The community leaders began by selling Red Fox 1000 kg of parchment coffee, a small amount that represented tons of growth potential.