Presidio Organic is a USDA Certified Organic and Bird Friendly® coffee from the Presidio de los Reyes community in Nayarit, Mexico.

It is medium-dark roasted and produces a full-bodied cup with chocolatey tasting notes, like cocoa-dusted almonds, and dried fruit, like figs. 

We sourced this coffee through our friends as San Cristobal Coffee Importers. San Cristobal began working with producers in the Mexican state of Nayarit in the early 1990s. Today, San Cristobal is vertically integrated at the source with Grupo Terruño Nayarita, an organized group of coffee-producing societies across seven different communities.

Community of Origin: Presidio de los Reyes

Presidio de los Reyes is an indigenous community located about an hour and a half drive north of Tepic, Mexico. The town is 96% indigenous Cora, making town residents among the 20,000 people in the world known to still use the Cora language. According to myth, the name Presidio de los Reyes (Spanish for "Jail of Kings") comes from a deep mountain well where a colonial viceroy was once imprisoned for poor leadership and a disregard for his own rules. 

Residents typically converse in their native tongue, only using Spanish when necessary to speak with outsiders. As natives of the area to this day, they still carry many traditions from the past. In fact, the state Nayarit took its name from Nayarit, the Cora god of war. 

The coffee of Presidio de los Reyes is cultivated in small patches (parcelas) in the forest, which are typically just a few hectares. "Tierras de uso común" is the designation under Mexico's agrian laws. No individual member can sell or privatize their portion of the land, as it is meant to remain a shared resource for the community.

Producing Society: Cerro Los Cuernos (CUERNO)

The local coffee-producing society, Cerro de los Cuernos (CUERNO), was created as an organization on January 22, 2001. For many years, the society was led by Alberto Flores Vargas, who, in 2008, passed away in an unfortunate car accident. Upon his death, Alberto's son Diego took charge of the cooperative/society which he leads to this day. There are about 20 producers in total who make up the CUERNO Society.

The most isolated of Grupo Terruño Nayarita (GTNAY) societies, CUERNO produces a relatively small total amount of coffee from year to year. For example, in the 2017-2018 harvest, CUERNO processed just 25,000 kg of coffee. However, the coffee they produce is of outstanding quality. All coffee from CUERNO is certified organic, and its average altitude is over 2,500 ft. The mountainous region is strewn with streams and rivers that run turquoise with minerals.

While all of the farmers live in the town of Presidio de los Reyes, their farms are set far back in the mountains and are only accessible by a four-hour mule ride. During the harvest, farmers leave their spouses and children in town for weeks at a time to tend the land and harvest, process, and transport their coffee. The rugged and vast terrain used by CUERNO makes for a challenging milling operation. Instead of running a centralized wet mill as is done by the other GTNAY societies, the producers of CUERNO have access to three or four wet mill stations. At the mills, the coffee is de-pulped, fermented, and dried on African drying beds (the first to be used in the state of Nayarit). Once dried, the coffee makes its long trek down the mountain, strapped to the backs of pack mules in 30 kg sacks. It arrives in the community of Presidio de los Reyes to be stored and then sent to the El Duende Dry Mill for further processing and export preparation.

Producing Organization/Exporter: Grupo Terruño Nayarita

Grupo Terruño Nayarita (GTNAY) is an enterprise that delivers consistently high-quality, socially and environmentally responsible, internet-traceable coffee from Mexico.

GTNAY stockholders are independent democratic coffee-producing societies scattered throughout the state of Nayarit. These societies range in size from 15 to a hundred producers. While each society develops its own infrastructure and elects its own leaders, they are equal participants in the GTNAY structure, agreeing to not compete with each other and to implement proven best practices.

A unique stockholder of the GTNAY organization is Cafés Sustentables de Mexico (CAFESUMEX). CAFESUMEX is the quality assurance member, assisting with dry mill, logistic, and export services.

We want to thank San Cristobal Coffee Importers for the amazing traceability of their coffees and the detailed origin information and images featured in the slide shows. We are grateful to be able to bring you this excellent coffee through their expertise and dedication to promoting equity in the supply chain.

Featured Bird: 

Archilochus colubris • Ruby-throated Hummingbird

A bird known to breed in Maryland and migrate through Mexico to their wintering grounds.

About the Bird:

The Ruby-throated Hummingbird is eastern North America's sole breeding hummingbird. They are tiny, precision-flying creatures with bright emerald or golden-green on the back and crown, with gray-white underparts. They fly straight and fast but can stop instantly, hover, and adjust their position up, down, or backward with exquisite control. They live in open woodlands, forest edges, meadows, grasslands, parks, gardens, and backyards.

Ruby-throated Hummingbirds feed on the nectar of red or orange tubular flowers but also catch insects in midair or pull them out of spider webs. They can aggressively defend flowers and feeders, leading to spectacular chases and dogfights.

Enjoy them while they're around; by early fall, they're bound for Central America. When migrating to and from their wintering grounds, Ruby-throated Hummingbirds either fly directly across the Gulf of Mexico or follow a coastal route around the Gulf. Based on range and sighting maps, the Ruby-throated Hummingbird is known to migrate through Nayarit, Mexico, where this Bird Friendly coffee is grown.

Fun Facts:

• The Ruby-throated Hummingbird beats its wings about 53 times a second.
• The extremely short legs of the Ruby-throated Hummingbird prevent it from walking or hopping. The best it can do is shuffle along a perch.
• Ruby-throated Hummingbirds are eastern North America's only breeding hummingbird. However, in terms of area, this species occupies the largest breeding range of any North American hummingbird.
• Ruby-throated hummingbirds are solitary. Adult species are not social other than during courtship. Both males and females of any age are aggressive toward other hummingbirds. They may defend territories, such as a feeding territory, attacking and chasing other hummingbirds, and vocalizing with rapid, squeaky chirps. Have you ever seen this around your bird feeders?