Our first Mexican beauty from the Sierra Sur region where we visited back in March this year is from Carlos Hernandez and a naturally processed Pluma Hidalgo variety. Naturals (dried in the skin) are risky in Mexico because of the humidity, but when they're good, they're very good.

Carlos is a member of Union San Pedro located in Barrio San Antonio in San Pedro El Alto. 2025 was his first year producing naturals alongside his regular washed coffees (that contribute to the Union San Pedro Blend). The first year was certainly a trial or proof of concept phase and as the coffees cupped very well Carlos began to expand his naturals and also experimenting with honeys this year.

For this natural process, cherry is rested for three nights in the skin and then dried on patios, Petates (mats) and even at times inside the house depending on the weather, for an average drying time of 20 days.

Raw Material and Red Beetle Coffee Lab have focused their work in the Oaxaca and Chiapas regions and been working with smallholder producers contributing to regional 'blends' as well as separating some special coffees for micro-lots including this natural from Carlos Hernandez. It was a privilege to cup these fresh crop coffees at the Red Beetle HQ and a few the the many lots we tasted have made their way to the UK spread amongst the roasters that attended the trip. We were lucky in securing this lot from Carlos and it's our first release from that trip.

Production yields have become dangerously low and over the last ten years coffee leaf rust disease and the lack of financial or agricultural means to tackle it has reduced production by up to 90% in some regions. The average yield in Oaxaca is now just 100kg of parchment per hectare. For context, in Colombia, the average yield is 2,400kg per hectare.

The vast majority of Mexico’s 500,000 coffee producers are smallholder farmers and have one hectare or less of land under coffee. This makes the average annual production for many producers just 100kg, making coffee farming more and more unsustainable. This is fuelling widespread migration to urban centres in Mexico and the United States. In short, coffee production is disappearing.