From Farm to Front Counter: How Oaxaca’s specialty cafes bridge the gap between producers and baristas
We often think of the specialty café solely as a feature of the Global North. Though as the global coffee scene has blossomed over the past decade, it has also flourished across the Global South – especially in Latin American countries. In these regions, the close proximity of cafés to production means that coffee culture has emerged with interesting variations to its over-considered counterparts in Europe, North America and Australasia. In many Mexican cities, you’re never very far away from a producing region, and you can often find producers frequenting urban coffeeshops not only to sell their produce, but also to taste, evaluate and gather feedback. This direct link, often overlooked, has played a pivotal role in nurturing the specialty coffee industry’s growth in Mexico.
Conventionally, the highest grade beans from producing countries are harvested, processed, dried, packaged and shipped to the quality oriented markets of London or New York without so much as a flat white’s worth of beans passing through a local cafe’s grinder. Therefore, producers rarely have an opportunity to taste their coffee and understand how their work at farm level impacts the consumer’s experience.
Qūentin Café, Hipódromo, Mexico City
However, as specialty coffee production increased in rural Mexico in the 2010s, in tandem so too did consumption in the country’s urban centres. Since 2011, early café protagonists in Mexico City consolidated their concept of the specialty coffeeshop, and subsequently promoted this model across the country. Café Avellaneda and Café Estelar are two famous outlets that inspired the rise of Mexican café culture alongside Memorias de un Barista and Gradios Deli Café. These early adopters were later followed by other key leaders such as Blend Station, Quentin, and Cardinal Casa de Café.
Today, Mexico’s urban landscapes are saturated with cafEs, each staffed with bright-eyed baristas ready to discuss with you in depth their intricate knowledge of each coffee bean while simultaneously preparing you an expressive natural-processed pourover from Mexico.
The marked abundance of knowledgeable baristas was no happy accident, and education around coffee production was strategised as a key component in Mexico’s venture into specialty. The Mexican Association for Specialty Coffee and Cafés helped to diffuse this knowledge, in turn empowering entrepreneurs to build a refined, ambitious and well-informed coffee scene.
Oaxaca City (Oaxaca de Juárez) was no exception to the rule, and here a significant café culture also emerged with close connections to the state’s plethora of producing regions. Early adopters, notably Café Caracol Púrpura and Cafébre - later accompanied by Filemón - prioritised close relationships with farmers to supply the city with only the best of Oaxacan grounds.
The Courtyard at Cafébre, Oaxaca de Juárez
Direct trade is a buzzword we hear all too often in the Global North, but how many baristas have ever visited a producing country, its cafés and its farms? Most often, direct trade is facilitated through a series of intermediaries. Along the way, knowledge is lost, and as the chain lengthens, so too does the gap between the café and producer widen. In Oaxaca, direct trade is not a concept, it is a lived practice. Coffeeshop owners and farmers are in constant communication. They chat via WhatsApp, they visit each other’s homes, they eat together, they drink coffee together and they listen to each other (possibly the most crucial part of this, and any, relationship).
The outcome of this trading dynamic is a more caring and understanding relationship between buyers and sellers. Understanding and caring for each other’s needs and desires, as well as limitations and opportunities, allows these protagonists to build a sustainable and meaningful trading relationship that bypasses intermediaries and improves the positions of both parties. Because of this cooperation, the farmers can trust that they will sell their future harvests to cafés in the cities, and café owners can trust that they will have a constant supply of quality coffee. Consistency, confidence and trust empower both groups. In Mexico, this relationship is so strong that many producers are not even interested in exporting; they find fulfillment in sending their coffees to Mexico’s vibrant cafés.
Powerful feedback loops and knowledge construction have been an invaluable consequence of the working relationship between cafés and farms. Kate, the owner of Cafébre, has been working with Diracsema José from Putla Villa de Guerrero, Oaxaca for 6 years. When Kate met the producer, they had detailed conversations about Diracsema’s coffee production. Focusing on topics such as fermentation times, coffee plant nourishment and all of the finer details. Kate learned about what Diracsema wanted to achieve with her specialty production, how much she hoped to earn and how much she hoped to produce. Each year, the café owner committed to purchasing the farm’s produce; cupping it, roasting it, brewing it, selling it, and acting as a proud ambassador on the farm’s behalf. And, each year the café owner also gave direct feedback on the coffee to the producer. This feedback and cooperation allowed the two actors to collaborate to merge their goals; Kate shared her knowledge with Diracsema, and Diracsema shared her knowledge with Kate. Over the years, coffee quality steadily improved thanks to this effective feedback loop, and both parties became more satisfied with the results achieved through their collaborative relationship.
This example from Oaxaca resonates with the experience of producers, roasters and baristas across the country. Specialty café owners collaborate with farmers to build wider knowledge on the trade and this allows for both parties to deliver better quality products to their customers. Again, this knowledge construction also supports the close relationships between the people at the farm and actors at the front-counter. One reason why coffees in Oaxaca, like the one you have in front of you from Unión San Pedro, have become so popular and crowd-pleasing is thanks to this understated collaboration. In Oaxaca, without the symbiosis between the two, neither would exist. Without the café owners who are willing to pay more for coffee, the producers would be unwilling to maintain and improve this production. And without that production, there is no specialty café.
But, despite increasing coffee quality, “it’s just coffee,” many people say… So, why does any of this matter? Overall, the rise of specialty café culture in Mexico, as well as other producer nations, contributes to significant change in these communities. It leads to more fulfilling lives for the specialty coffee protagonists at origin. The link between farmer and front-counter enables coffee actors at origin to reduce exploitation of rural societies. It allows for sustainable lives. Coffee producers are not vulnerable to vagaries of the global market (consider these examples: rising transport costs, changing labour relations at import nation, fluctuating global economic conditions, varying consumer trends around the world). Pride in coffee protagonists’ work and their community also flourishes with this specialty culture. A key lesson that everyone involved learns, including consumers, is that you do not need to leave Mexico, nor Oaxaca, to find something good – it is right here. And holistically, the change to the old regime’s exploitative, apathetic and ignorant coffee economy signals that change is possible. And that hope for change inspires us all.
