Nayarit Coffee 003

This is only of interest to coffee lovers who plan on spending time in the Jaltemba Bay area. As many of you know, Nayarit is a coffee growing state. It is also hard to believe that it is very hard to get a fresh cup of coffee at Jaltemba Bay. There is only one restaurant in the Jaltemba Bay area that I know of that roasts coffee. By fresh coffee I mean freshly roasted, freshly ground and not too long in the pot. I am sure this is a repeat for many of you, but I will say it again. Green coffee beans will keep for several years, roasted coffee beans for several days (if sealed), ground coffee for several minutes, without starting to lose flavor. Most canned coffee was over the hill before it was put in the can. After you open it, no matter how it was packed, it will be stale in a short while. There are two basic classes of coffee. Robusto and Arabica. There are a number of different types within each class. Arabica is a true coffee that was discovered during Roman times in Ethiopia. Somewhere around a hundred years ago the Robusto, which is a distant cousin of the Arabica was discovered in the southern part of Africa. Arabica develops full flavor when grown at higher altitudes, produces one crop a year and is a gourmet coffee. Robusta is more bland in flavor, is usually grown at lower altitudes, can produce more than one crop a year and is the common coffee found in cans in the supermarket, although some companies are now blending in Arabica to help the flavor. Here in Nayarit, we are only concerned with the Arabica. Most of the harvested crop is exported. Nayarit is a very small state and is a small producer of coffee as compared to other areas such as Vera Cruz and Chiapas. Therefore, the larger companies, such as Starbucks, have no interest.
Coffee harvest time started around the first of the year, here in Nayarit, and finished about the end of April. The better growers hand picked the ripe cherries as they developed. This is important to remember and I only know of one area here in Nayarit that does that. El Malinal. Most pick all of the cherries, even though still green, and it reflects in the flavor. The beans were then cleaned and set out to dry. After drying it is called pergamino. The pergamino was then sent to the Benificio (processing plant). No matter how well cared for the plants are there will be some brocha (insects that bore little holes in the beans). Poorly cared for plants will have a lot. Well cared for not too much. Most of these are sorted out at the Beneficio. The coffee is then sized and the broken, undeveloped, and badly infected beans are discarded. (of interest is that these usually go to commercial coffee companies and instant coffee – nice, huh!) At this point the beans are said to have been graded. The beans are then put in 69 kilo sacks and are ready for export. There is only one Beneficio in this area that does it properly.

With all of this said, you coffee lovers can not only have your morning cups of fresh gourmet coffee, but you will save money doing it. You can buy your green beans right here in Jaltemba Bay. Café Occidental, located on the main highway and a block north of the Avenida sells green beans from the La Cumbre area. They also sell roasted beans for $50 pesos a kilo. The problem with buying roasted beans is they are probably already stale or will be before they hit your pot. I stock a limited supply of green beans for my friends and to anyone else so long as the supply lasts. My beans are from El Malinal and graded. The retail price for quality green beans is around 35 pesos a kilo.
Now to the point of all of this. What you want to do is obtain good quality green beans. They should smell fresh. Kind of like fresh hay or alfalfa. A little like green grass. Roast these beans on a daily bases. Brew and enjoy. Don't let the coffee sit in a pot more than a few minutes. (you can put it in a thermos for a couple of hours)
Now that you know where you can get the beans and what must be done, here are a couple of ways to do it in far off Mexico.
My partner, Vicky, says there is only one way. Here it is. Go to the tianguis and buy a comal. This is the flat metal pan that is used for heating or cooking tortillas. (you can also buy them in most super markets) Cost is 25 or 30 pesos. Maybe U.S. $2.40. Put it on the stove at medium high heat. Throw on a couple of handfuls of green beans. Keep turning them until they are the color of the coffee you like. Then put them on a molcajete (this is the stone dish, with the little rounded stone pounder that you can also find in the tianguis and that is used to pulverize chilies – talk about hot coffee!!) cost about 80 pesos – U.S. $7.00) Bring a pot of water to boil and toss in the grounds. (cowboy coffee!). Let it boil a few minutes and then pour yourself a cup after the grounds have settled.
Bob does it like this. Buy a small electric coffee roaster - costs between $70 and $140 U.S. Put in the amount of green coffee beans as specified by the manufacturer. Set the timer to the desired amount of minutes. Usually 10 minutes, more or less . You will have to experiment on this. After the coffee is roasted let it set for a couple of hours. You can put them in a mayonnaise jar with the lid loose. After you tighten the lid you can keep these fresh for up to 5 days. Buy a small grinder. Blade grinders are maybe $15 U.S., more or less. Put the grounds in a drip coffee maker. When finished, enjoy.
You can buy the coffee roaster on the internet. One such place is www.sweetmarias.com or you can get hold of Java Jane (Jane Hill) at: omak@gci.net . The grinder can be had at most places that sell coffee makers. When you leave, take the equipment back with you and some coffee beans. You can take up to 50lbs. each. You will easily pay for the equipment with the money you save and you will have fresh coffee.
I am going to make my final buy for the season next week. Anyone that wants me to buy coffee for them, let me know. For any questions just send me an e mail.
e – mail: robertohowell@hotmail.com

French, German and Italians came here in the early 1800s and planted coffee in our surrounding mountains. It is not all that easy to get to now days, so imagine how it was 200 years ago.

Sometimes I buy my coffee from the small growers up there (which I process myself) and sometimes from the Beneficio, or coffee processing plant, which is processed and ready to roast. I never grow tired of visiting the growers and sampling their coffee.

To me, one of the great pleasures of life is sharing my experiences with others. To that end, my partner, Vicky Flores, and I offer tourist trips to Coffee country. It is a seasonal thing and for various reasons we can only offer the trip from about mid December to April. We travel by jeep through a couple of villages, where you get a chance to sample the coffee that you are going to see and visit a rural Mexican farm workers home. We travel through a rain forest valley and climb (by jeep) to several coffee settlements. You will have a chance to have a hands on experience with coffee and talk to growers. We have lunch in the small mountain home of a coffee grower. After that we return down the mountain and have a dip in a hot spring and then return to Jaltemba bay. We leave at 10 a.m. and return about 5 p.m.