In the east of Mexico, in Córdoba, two sisters run a fourth-generation family ranch. For a few years now, they have been specializing in direct contact with roasters, creating new markets and opportunities, and have launched a decaffeinated coffee with probably the shortest supply chain in the world.
Actually, the plan for the two sisters, Melisa and Jimena, was once different than taking over a ranch – Melisa studied architecture and was drawn to Switzerland. Jimena studied agricultural science in Mexico and, after graduating, decided to take over the family business together with Melisa.
Family businesses follow a different dynamic than many other companies.
Family ties can be a motivation, an obstacle, but also a commitment and a source of pride. Melisa and Jimena themselves have witnessed how the last 20 years have been challenging. They have experienced the hopes and the pain, and have seen that, especially in Mexico, it is time for young women to be able to make their mark in a male-dominated field.
Melisa and Jimena, 2022
Diverse tasks at Rancho San Felipe
Rancho San Felipe is therefore now being run by the two sisters in the fourth generation. Their father, Adrián, focused the ranch on coffee, expanded the network enormously, and thus became a fixed star in the coffee region around Córdoba, Veracruz.
The Rancho San Felipe itself produces almost no coffee anymore today, but instead conducts experiments with varieties and offers guided tours in its own gardens.
Melisa shows us the nursery at Rancho San Felipe, where they grow coffee as well as shade trees, fruit trees, and flowers.
The ranch purchases coffee cherries or already depulped coffee in the region, processes it, dries and sorts it until it is exportable. Rancho San Felipe thus creates its own blends, which Benjamin Distl, Melisa's partner, then primarily exports to Europe.
At the same time, the ranch also processes coffee on behalf of producers, even roasts it, or looks for market channels in Mexico itself. This broad approach helps the ranch to cover very different areas and to utilize the potential of its infrastructure.
At the ranch in Córdoba, in addition to a beneficio húmedo - the place where the cherries are depulped, fermented, and washed - there is also a beneficio seco. There, the dried coffee in parchment is cleaned of foreign objects, separated from the parchment skin, sorted by size and density, bagged, and cupped.
Rancho San Felipe by night.
The facilities have been in operation for a long time, and Melisa and Jimena have long-term plans. Step by step, they want to renovate the ranch. The history of the ranch dates back more than a century, when the area was also larger. A lot has changed, and the two are eager to start new projects and build on old relationships.
The Sueño - the project for our decaffeinated coffee with Descamex
And it is precisely this approach that manifests itself in the decaffeinated coffee that Rancho San Felipe is now making for us. A few years ago, we asked Benjamin Distl if they would like to make a specialty decaf?
The main reason was that Rancho San Felipe and Descamex, one of only two companies in the world that decaffeinate green coffee using only water and pressure, are almost neighbors. Both companies are based in Córdoba. And because Melisa and Jimena's father already knew the people in charge at Descamex, connecting the dots was done quickly.
Cupping at Descamex, who decaffeinate our decaf using only water
However, a green coffee was still missing, and that is now being contributed by Rafael Reyes. Reyes bought thousands of new seedlings of the Gesha variety, unaware that it was not a Gesha at all. He hoped to be successful with it in a highly sought-after market. After two years, it turned out that they were certainly not Gesha varieties and that he had been "misinformed" at the time of purchase.
That was just the moment when Melisa and Jimena got in touch with him - Rafael Reyes had also already been in contact with their father, but back then the two sisters were still younger.
In Reyes' memory, however, they were probably still "the girls" (las niñas) who one day stood on the farm, and he referred to them as such from then on.
Unlike before, however, they now came with a business idea of how they could help Reyes. The coffee from Reyes fit sensorially exactly into the range of how we also wanted the decaffeinated coffee. Sweet, notes of maple syrup, heavy, with medium acidity.
The farm of Rafael Reyes in the Sierra de Gallego
Reyes delivers the cherries, Rancho San Felipe depulps and ferments them, dries the beans, and delivers them to Descamex, ten minutes up the road towards Orizaba.
Initially, they produced one batch with Descamex, which corresponds to about 2.5 tons of green coffee. The demand for a hyper-local, decaffeinated coffee increased continuously - from us and from friendly roasters - so that Rancho San Felipe is now multiplying the quantity by five.
Don Ramiro, the farm manager, with the Sueño - from the farm to the roastery and back
The new coffee generation at Rancho San Felipe
So today, Melisa and Jimena are at the helm of the ranch; Beni takes care of the export and marketing of the coffee, both domestically and abroad. Beni himself also roasts coffee for the local market. When he attended a roasting course with us in 2021, he surprised everyone by saying he was able to "reduce his roasting time from 60 minutes to 40 minutes."
The old 70kg roaster - it runs, and runs, and runs
Of course, that is a long roasting time, but the machine doesn't offer more. However, for local needs, he optimized the system to such an extent that they could roast more and more private label for producers and also create an additional sales channel with their own brand.
Those who make coffee don't just make coffee.
The tasks at Rancho San Felipe in Córdoba are so multi-layered because many of the projects have grown historically. There is the large garden where they grow flowers and succulents and sell them in their own flower shop in Orizaba. There is the model farm, where they conduct experiments with varieties, test different types of compost, grow fruit, take tourists through the farm, and show them coffee trees. There is the beehive for their own honey and the drying beds for their specialty lots, which already make up almost ten percent of the total harvest.
Visit in October 2022, f.l.t.r.: Philipp, Michel (Kaffeemacher:innen team), Melisa, Jimena, Patrizio (Ballon Coffee Roasters), Beni
Melisa, Jimena, and Benni have taken on a huge project. We are impressed by the dedication, creativity, and humility with which they are following in the footsteps of a family tradition. They have their program, are open to projects, sense where a specialty market is heading, and know exactly that working with coffee is never just about coffee, but about people, relationships, and old bonds that they are now leading into a new era.
