Few companies are as close to coffee as Cafeología. In southern Mexico, they work directly with producers, roast, taste, are baristas and share their knowledge in the coffee school. The team around Jesús Salazar has created a coffee island that can be a model for the entire coffee industry. Details, precision and patience characterize the work of Cafeología. We were on site.
The "coffee science" as its own field doesn't really exist, and yet it quickly becomes clear what it's supposed to be about: the totality of what makes coffee. It is a holistic approach to a subject that should include production, processing and consumption. "Cafeología" is dedicated to this grand goal as a company and states that "harmony between the environment, families and quality" is at the forefront.
The motto of Cafeología: We create the human, economic and material conditions to express the maximum potential of coffee and those who made it.
What does Cafeología actually do?
Many who come into contact with Cafeología do so through social media. The Instagram accounts of the company and of Jesús (Cafeólogo) are a stylishly designed diary of their work. The first physical point of contact is probably the cafés, with the headquarters in San Cristóbal being particularly noteworthy, as well as a small shop at Tuxtla airport. At their headquarters in San Cristóbal, they operate a coffee roastery and a coffee school, where they train employees, coffee professionals and interested people.
On the roof, they have a drying facility for coffee cherries. Outside the city, they operate a dry mill, where they hull, sort, clean and manually remove defects from coffee and export green coffee, primarily to Europe. In the region around San Cristóbal, they work in four indigenous communities, where they run their own beneficios and offer producers workshops on quality optimization. This broad and diverse work has developed over the past ten years.
View into the dry mill, where coffees are manually sorted.
In autumn 2022, I visited San Cristóbal, after we had been in contact with Jesús for three years and had already purchased two natural nano-lots from Pedro Vásquez. I was excited and nervous. The media work of Cafeología is impressive and creates high expectations.
The Cafeología Café
At the café, I met Pablo Salazar, who manages the finances. The café itself is done in a mix of 1970s architecture with lots of wood, high ceilings, many plants and subtle colors. The place itself radiates calm and invites you to stay for several cups of coffee. The baristas are well-trained and take their time with the extractions.
The flagship café of Cafeología in San Cristóbal
Guests choose filter coffees based on different point scores. The 85-point coffees are the baseline, then come the 86 and 87 point coffees. The 85-point coffees offer a lot of balance, soft texture and plenty of sweetness. The higher point scores become more floral, fruitier and remind less and less of the classic coffee taste.
"It's all about the details," says Pablo.
He is the CFO of the company and only discovered coffee a few years ago when his brother Jesús brought him on board for the project. "If we want to communicate details in coffee, we also have to look at it in detail." Details — a word that would accompany me throughout my days in San Cristóbal.
Pablo Salazar, Cafeología
There were custom-designed coffee cups that concentrate the aroma and make it stronger. There was soap made from coffee by-products in the room. There was the calibration in the language of all employees about how they described the coffees. There was the same music in all rooms. There were labeled cupping cups in the lab. And there was the same high-quality coffee, no matter who brewed it.
The Roastery
Right next to the café, Claudia and her team operate the roastery. They roast on a 15kg Giesen roaster. They roast one curve per coffee variety. The filter coffee roasting curve is their baseline; for espresso they follow the same curve but roast a bit longer. They now roast just under 30 tons for their own use. They supply five Cafeología cafés, sell locally and in the online shop, and some coffee shops in Mexico itself serve their coffee.
View into the roastery of Cafeología.
The awareness and consumption of local coffee is much more pronounced in Mexico than in other coffee-growing countries. At Buna in Mexico City, for example, guests choose between different coffee regions first, then the farm. Actually, the way we know it from wine.
The Coffee School and the Lab
Claudia also runs the lab next door, where daily tastings take place. Claudia also judges at the Cup of Excellence, the most prestigious competition for the best coffees in a country. The tastings with Claudia and the team were very valuable because we could calibrate ourselves.
We wanted to learn from each other how we think, talk and feel about coffees. This helps us all communicate even more precisely with each other in the future and for Cafeología to find exactly the coffees we're looking for.
The cupping lab of Cafeología
We tasted coffees from three zones around San Cristóbal. At Cafeología, the focus is on washed and cherry-fermented and naturally processed coffees. Carlos is responsible for the post-harvest processes, and I had a long conversation with him about fermentations and drying.
Carlos is responsible for the entire post-harvest process
However, Carlos didn't talk about drying, but about "dehydration" — meaning removing water. It seems like a detail, but that's exactly what it's about. The method, speed, temperature and sun exposure with which we remove water from coffee has a massive impact on taste and storage capacity.
Drying on the Roof
Just in front of my room were the first drying beds. Where in other houses there would be a balcony where you'd sunbathe and have a glass of wine, Carlos and his team dry coffee cherries. A dream for every coffee person.
Drone view of the Cafeología roof shortly before the drying beds were carried up.
"Here we have total control over the process," he says, because he can check the progress of drying and fermentation several times a day. These are laboratory conditions, but from these they can derive general recommendations that Diana and her agronomy team can then pass on to producers.
The Focus on Quality
In 2022, Cafeología processes about 70 tons of green coffee. That's roughly as much as we roasted in 2022. Of these 70 tons, they roast just under half themselves; the rest goes to the local specialty market or export.
The focus of Cafeología is on characteristic, high-quality coffees with more than 85 points according to the SCA standard. Not all coffees from producers they work directly with achieve 85 points. For these coffees that score between 84 and 85 points, they have created two of their own cafés, the "Carajillo". There they offer specialty coffee that is somewhat more accessible, and in this way they can also create a larger market for their partner producers. Coffees below 84 points they sell on the local green coffee market.
All producers receive this receipt, which certifies the quality of the cherries and defines the expected payment.
The strong focus on complex coffees is certainly interesting from a sensory perspective. However, it's worth considering whether this very focus also excludes producers, and if so, how.
Visit to Aldama at the Beneficio Comunitario
We visit the Beneficio Comunitario. This is a collection point for coffee cherries. Cafeología built this station together with a local coffee producer. To get there, we drive to Aldama in an indigenous community of the Tzotzíl, not far from San Cristóbal. The two places are separated by two hours of driving or 30 kilometers as the crow flies — but in terms of substance, there's a universe between them.
"I grew up in Chiapas," says Pablo, "and I never had to define myself by my skin color. I'm from here. But the first time I was in Aldama, I suddenly was the white guy."
Aldama is located east of San Cristóbal in a region that had much sympathy for the socially revolutionary Zapatista movement in the 1990s. The region's history is different from that of San Cristóbal. Rural areas are still characterized by strong indigenous customs, traditions and values. In the small communities, few people speak Spanish, and the communities remain and often live within themselves. This fragmentation creates micro-regions and micro-worlds, so that Cafeología initially worked with three translators alone in the area around San Cristóbal.
In Aldama itself, we meet Inéz Vázquez. She is the daughter of Pedro Vásquez, from whom we have already roasted two nano-lots. Inéz is a young woman who worked as a barista at Cafeología for five years, then roasted coffee, and today runs a collection point for coffee cherries. This fact alone breaks with many traditions in her community: as a young woman, she takes on work that has previously only been done by men. She manages the beneficio and thus not only has responsibility, but is equipped with many rights — she decides which cherry quality is purchased or rejected. At the same time, she provides feedback and conducts workshops for producers to communicate the philosophy of Cafeología.
Inéz Vázquez. Producer's daughter, entrepreneur, barista, roaster.
"The beginning was a bit rough," says Inéz. But after three years, the number of producers delivering cherries to Inéz has tripled. The quality keeps getting better, and that's primarily due to the simple, direct and transparent way Cafeología and Inéz share knowledge.
There are no surprises for producers because Cafeología first communicates the prices for delivered coffee cherries before the season and makes them public for everyone. What might sound obvious is simply not standard in coffee-growing countries. Often coffee is harvested without knowing what the value will be at the end of the day. This seemingly small lever turns an entire system upside down.
Most importantly, it creates incentives in a region that is largely ignored by official Mexico. The recent history of the Zapatista region seems to be one reason why there are few state interventions or development programs to support the impoverished rural population. All too often, and also in this case, there are state pensions meant to support people, but in reality keep them stuck in a vicious cycle.
In the case of the region around Aldama, young people get the right to their own house at age 15. There are no building zones. Whoever wants to build can do so without major restrictions, anywhere. Additionally, there's a state subsidy. Similarly, parents receive a state pension for each child. And this combination creates a cocktail where there are many young people in the region who have many children and live in their own one-room house. The money from the child pension is often enough to survive, but not for much more.
Coffee Quality as an Incentive
"This isn't a system, it's stagnation," says Inéz. No incentives are created to do anything. But in the Cafeología system, it's about incentives. Aldama lies in a region between 1800 and 2000 meters altitude. The region has little coffee rust because it's very cool. Many producers work organically because they don't have access to mineral fertilizers. Varieties like Geisha, Bourbon or Java grow here — varieties that are no longer grown in many parts of Mexico because they're not rust-resistant. The starting point for high quality is there. But to actually achieve it requires proper plant care and precise harvesting.
Claudia and Diana
Diana is an agronomist and advises all producers that Cafeología works with. I love and appreciate being out with agronomists, asking detailed questions and getting thorough answers. Diana advises how producers can design their farms sustainably and long-term, which varieties are suitable for new plantings, how diseases and pests can be prevented, and how other crops can be planted between coffee trees.
What about organic production? "Step by step," says Diana. Mexico and organic coffee is a story in itself. Since the 1980s, Mexico has been one of the largest producers of organic coffee, supplied primarily to the United States. All Mexican coffee regions focused on organic coffee, but mainly had certification in mind, not plant care.
"Many organic farms here are broken," I heard again and again. Organic doesn't just happen. Organic isn't organic just because nothing is done. And this approach prevailed for a long time in Chiapas. "Whoever doesn't fertilize, whoever doesn't prune, whoever simply does nothing, they're organic," says Diana. But that's not what organic is about — it's about working with the soil, the entire farm system, and that requires deep understanding and hard work to succeed.
"We first have to show that we're trustworthy partners. Then we have to show that we need high quality. And then we slowly guide our producers toward more natural production."
Many organic farms in the region think organic = doing nothing
It should be noted that the vast majority of producers working with Cafeología already work in a very natural way, some even organically. However, there are also many bad and recent memories of organic certification.
Certification for individual producers is unrealistic, especially if they're small. Cooperatives offer a path to certification, which in Mexico are often double-certified, both organic and Fair Trade. But a cooperative alone doesn't make a difference; it must be managed conscientiously and developed in service of its members. Too often cooperatives have failed because funds were misappropriated, individual members' voices weren't heard, leading to loss of trust, and many cooperatives disbanded.
"Step by step. Rushing gets us nowhere. We have to create understanding, build trust, and then move forward step by step. We're still guests here." Diana, who comes from Colombia, feels this triply. As a woman, as a white person, as a Colombian.
The Dry Mill and Export
Once the coffee is dry, it's made export-ready at their own dry mill. It was the first time I didn't wear a mask in a dry mill. There was hardly any dust. "We clean the hulling machines after each pass," says Pablo. After that, the green coffee is sorted by density and size. They typically repeat this process five times — I've never seen that before.
The resulting high uniformity produces extremely homogeneous roasting quality, since all beans can process the roaster's energy evenly. This year we purchased two nano-lots from Cafeología. The coffees are brought to Europe via Belco.
We're excited about this partnership with Cafeología. It's a pleasure to be able to exchange so broadly and deeply about coffee. You can expect nano-lots from the region around San Cristóbal from us annually, and together we're learning to know the region sensorially ever better.
