Maricela Esperon El Sotano

Yes, she's back.. our third year with this super sweet and floral gem from Maricela Esperon and her farm El Sotano. Naturally processed coffees from Oaxaca in Mexico are hard to find but Maricela Esperon took a chance in 2023 and and lucky for her and for us the risk paid off. This year Maricela processed a little more as a natural and it’s just as good as we remember. Super sweet, clean and floral. Full of strawberries.

Like many young coffee farmers Maricela had emigrated in her early 20s to the city to find work and better job opportunities. After her dad fell unwell, she decided to return to her hometown of Santa Maria La Asuncion and help her father with their coffee farm El Sotano in which he had worked his whole life. She looked relentlessly for better market opportunities until she met Ensambles a processing and marketing company who accompanied her to process her coffee natural to create a unique profile for the area. Nobody does naturals in the region because of the extremely cold nights and frequent rains during the drying season. Maricela built a shaded drying patio with raised beds and dries her coffee over 30-45 days, a contrasting practise from the normal pulped and washed coffees that is commonly seen in the area. The farm is 2-hours walk from the house and they transport the cherries with a horse.

Ensambles provide support to producers from different regions of the country, such as Chiapas, Oaxaca and Veracruz, during the harvest cycle to improve their processes and obtain the best coffees, they collect, process and market green and roasted coffee for the national and international market.

Careful picking on the tree and post-picking manual selection of cherries. The coffee is then laid on raised beds to be dried over 30-40 days under shade, and entered every night in the house so it does not re-humidify.