Mexican Coffee Beans Guide – Brewing, Buying & Growing

Coffee originally arrived in Mexico in the late 1700s, when it was produced on farms controlled by Europeans and labored mostly by indigenous Mexicans. The early twentieth-century revolution began to alter the status quo through agricultural land reform.

Contemporary Mexican farms looked nothing like the huge coffee plantations of the preceding year: the most comprehensive agricultural statistics had 515,000 farmers, 85 percent of which were native Mexicans and 95% cultivated less than 3 hectares. But today, it’s a much better situation in terms of labor laws.

Mexico mostly grows shade-grown Arabica coffee, with Robusta contributing for only 3–4% of the production. In Mexico’s considerably colder environment, 35% of coffee is produced at 3000 feet above sea level, circumstances favorable to higher-quality coffee. Mexican coffees are often softer, delicate, and flavorful thanks to the wide-spread varieties such as:

In this Mexican coffee review, we will further talk about what are the Top 5 Mexican Coffee Brands on Amazon, what are the most famous coffee-growing regions in the country, and how to brew this type of coffee in general.

Top Coffee Producing Regions in Mexico

Mexican coffee is categorized according to elevation, and the majority of the region’s coffee is utilized for blending and/or dark-roasted coffees. There are quite a few places that cultivate Arabica coffee beans as well as Robusta, but in this guide, we will talk about the 2 most important ones.

Soconusco

Soconusco is a village in the southwest part of the Mexican state of Chiapas, near the border to Guatemala. This is a sliver of land situated between the Sierra Madre de Chiapas hills as well as the Pacific Ocean. This is the most southern region of the Chiapas coast, stretching south from the Ulapa River to the Suchiate River, and is notable for its historical and economic activity. This region has had a good economy with great agricultural labor movement patterns.

After hundreds of years of sending chocolate to central Mexico, Mexican roast coffee was the very first contemporary crop to be exported. Additional crops, including tropical fruits, flowers, and others, have been established since then.

The Soconusco region of Chiapas is recognized for being Mexico’s most prolific location for coffee cultivation, thanks in part to farmers’ ability to employ a natural forest canopy that is abundant across the region, giving natural shade for the coffee plants. This organic Mexican coffee is not only a high-quality cup that preserves the climate, but it is also one in which collaboration has developed between the mill and the producers, assisting in the development of a sustainable farm-to-cup chain for everybody.

Chiapas

Mexico’s most well-known coffee grower is also its largest, accounting for around 40% of the country’s total output. The hot, rainy environment produces what many believe to be the greatest Mexican coffees, with scores of 90 or higher at the Cup of Excellence. The flavors here lean toward chocolate and almonds, while the texture is rich and silky. In 2003, Mexican Chiapas beans were granted protected designation of origin.

Chiapas was the very first area in the country to produce coffee beans and remains the best Mexican coffee region in terms of exports. The environment is hot yet tropical, making it excellent for bean cultivation. Nearby volcanoes create fertile, nutrient-rich soil, allowing crops to grow.

Chiapas coffee beans have a round shape and a long body with nutty, citrus, lemon, as well as chocolate overtones. Chiapas is also known for producing Café de Altura beans. “Altura” means “heights,” which makes sense given that the beans grow at altitudes ranging from 3,000 to 4,000 feet.

Top 5 Mexican Coffee Brands on Amazon

We tested and reviewed some of the greatest Mexican coffees available. Let’s talk about the Top 5 Best Mexican Coffee Brands on Amazon and how we rated them.

How We Rated Them

We pay attention to the following:

• Price
• Company Background
• Taste
• Shelf-life
• Additives

For more detailed information on how exactly we rate the coffee products we suggest in our guides, click here.

Individual Overviews of Our Top Choices

Although you can easily go ahead and check individual reviews of these products, might as well stick around and see what we have to say about them as well.

Finca Nextlalpa Unroasted Beans

Smoking Beans is a family-run coffee provider that specializes in single origin coffee beans. What I liked the most about this product was that it was unroasted. This gave me an opportunity to try out my handy dandy electric coffee roaster and bring it up to a medium roast. I then immediately grind the beans with my Burr grinder and set to brew.

By doing everything back to back, I was able to get the most unique, fresh, and aromatic taste out of these beans, and I have to tell ya, it was worth the effort.

This Mexican coffee brand, in particular, contains Bourbon beans, which are known for their distinct chocolate flavor. By fresh roasting and grinding them, I felt as if I’d poured in a spoon of cocoa in my drink. Highly recommended.

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Veracruz Whole Bean

Veracruz coffee is grown in the highest highlands, where the beans have a larger volume, firmness, and better quality due to the exact atmospheric pressure and light conditions.

The beans are harvested by hand and sun-dried organically. The scents and aroma of this coffee are semi-bitter cocoa with almond and wood overtones. Characteristics are strong, yet the texture is pretty light.

I had heard of Veracruz coffee from Etnia 52 before but had never tried it. So, you can imagine my excitement when I discovered it when looking for the best Mexican coffee brands. I was also surprised by the price. I was expecting something much more expensive based on what I was hearing from some of my friends.

But overall, this product left me happy and satisfied with my purchase. Definitely recommended.

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Mexican Chiapas Whole Beans

This organic Mexican coffee is cultivated near the Guatemalan borders in the Mexican state of Chiapas. If you’ve read our description of Chiapas above, then you’ll know exactly what we were expecting with this product.

The taste was pretty average compared to other products I’ve tried from this region, but nothing compared to instant coffee bought in the dollar store or something. It was a bit on the bitter side, even though it’s a medium roast and not a dark roast. I wouldn’t say I didn’t like it, but I wasn’t really blown away by it as well. It’s a pretty good deal in terms of pricing though. 5 pounds for $46 is probably the best price you can get for organic Mexican coffee beans nowadays.

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Volcanica Fresh Roasted

I never miss a chance to feature Volcanica coffee on my lists, just because I like their products oh so very much.

They didn’t disappoint me in this case either. The coffee came in fresh-roasted as expected, and yielded around 15 amazing brews.

The taste was pretty robust with mild tones of spice and fruits, but it wasn’t something unexpected. It didn’t really match the flavor of the Veracruz coffee reviewed above, but it was still worth every penny I paid.

If you like organic coffee provided to you by a reputable and trustworthy brand, then this product may just be up your alley.

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Organic Mexican Pods

Just to let you know, I’d never recommend capsule coffee to any of my readers unless it was one of the best ones I’ve ever had. Fresh Roasted Coffee LLC really outdid themselves with this one. It almost felt like I was drinking freshly ground Arabica beans brewed with a percolator or something. It was that good.

Naturally, I had to use the single serve coffee maker at the office (because I’d never put one in my house), and I have to say that I liked this one very much. I bought it only because it was FRC LLC and also wanted to incorporate all the corporate coffee lovers into the mix as well.

If you have a single serve at home, then this coffee will definitely be a great addition to your other flavors.

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Best Machines for Brewing Mexican Coffee at Home

Not all machines are designed for Mexican coffee beans, or Arabica coffee beans in general. Below I will share with you the machines I used myself for organic ground Mexican coffee, and which ones yielded the best brews.

Normal Stovetop – Most Common Way

No matter how you look at it, Mexicans are pretty busy people. This can easily be noticed by their coffee consumption culture. Even though their very own country produces high quality Arabica beans you can brew and enjoy every day, most Mexicans prefer to go for instant coffee instead. It’s much faster, and is usually not as bad as people think.

Most Mexican coffee beans are Arabica, but the local roasters and manufacturers find a way to turn them into instant coffee as well.

So, if you get yourself instant coffee from Mexico, then there’s not much to talk about. Just grab your stovetop coffee maker and just pour the hot water on your coffee mixture. That’s all there is to it.

Best Stovetop Coffee Makers

The AeroPress – My Favorite Way of Brewing Mexican Coffee

I wasn’t going to try this method, but I coincidentally had to go camping with some of my friends out on a lake before summer. So, knowing that I would crave my morning cup of Java, I brought my AeroPress with me as well as the Veracruz coffee I had just purchased to review.

The very first morning I prepared the coffee all willy nilly and wasn’t really expecting much. But boy was I wrong. It tasted pretty similar to how I’d brew it here in my own house with a Percolator or an Espresso Machine.

I don’t know how AeroPress has managed to create such a versatile and useful product, but kudos to them for sure.

Check Out Our AeroPress Review Here

Common Brew Types Mexican Coffee Beans Are Used For

Now, let’s talk about the favorite types of coffee that Mexicans brew. They’re not the common Americano or Cappuccino or anything similar, but localized versions of drinking a heavy brew and enjoying it to the fullest.

Cafe de Olla – Best Type of Mexican Brew

Café de olla (in English “pot coffee”) is a typical Mexican coffee drink with cinnamon and piloncillo. This coffee is mostly drunk in cold regions and in rural places.

This famous drink may be found in Mexico in locations like roadside cafes, local mom and pop meals, and restaurants that sell traditional Mexican meals. People prepare it at home as well, especially during the winter. It is also offered at Christmas celebrations (Posadas) and even at certain funerals. When I first tried it, the taste surprised me. It wasn’t as sweet as I expected it to be. Actually, it had quite a nice sweetness to it almost like it was natural or something. Highly recommended you try this at home too.

Standard Lungo

Because the inherent flavor of Mexican coffee is so wonderful, they sort of expand this when they prepare it Lungo style.

Because Mexican coffee beans are on the bitter side most of the time, many people don’t really enjoy it as an Espresso, but still want concentrated flavor. Therefore, they usually brew it as a Lungo, which is not as concentrated as an Espresso, nor is it as diluted as an Americano.

The Choco Bomb

Mexican Hot Choco Bombs are the perfect combination of creamy hot chocolate and aromatic, toasty spices. This winter, a cup of this delectably spicy hot chocolate coffee is guaranteed to melt your heart.

Mexican dark chocolate can be used, however, it must be melted over high heat first. I wouldn’t recommend using dark chocolate though. The coffee beans are bitter already, so adding even more bitterness is going to make the brew way too extreme. Going for mild or milk chocolate would be a much better option.

Make sure you don’t strain your arm when making this coffee though, it requires a long session of stirring and stirring until all the chocolate solids are completely melted and incorporated in your drink

Frequently Asked Questions on Mexican Coffee Online