Nayarit (“Nigh-arr-eet”) is the state in Mexico where we source about 16% of our green coffee these days, specifically through the producer organization Grupo Terruño Nayarita (GTNay for short). GTNay coffees have become a consistent (and beloved) component in our Bonfire Blend and Tortoiseshell Blend for the past year or so, and we wanted to share what we’ve learned about this organization, the region, the folks in Mexico making all this happen, and why their coffees are so important to us at Dapper & Wise.
This relationship began when our Director of Coffee got selected to do a production internship during the 2022/2023 harvest, which spanned from January through May 2023. He rented a room in a small apartment building in the city of Tepic, the capital of Nayarit, about a 10 minute walk from the GTNay office, where he worked primarily as a member of the quality control team, led by Carlos Bustamente. The first month or so of the internship consisted of classroom-style lessons and trips around the region. The team in Mexico generously shared a bunch of information about their transparency and traceability systems, the software they developed to keep things organized, the structure of the organization from a legal and organizational perspective, their quality control systems, their agronomy and post-harvest practices. Once the harvest picked up, the focus switched quickly to quality control - sample after sample, day in, day out. Every week when producers would come by the office for the weekly assembly, they’d bring their samples of dried parchment or cherry from the week, which we would add to the ever growing pile of samples to be evaluated - a multiple step (and day) process. It’s easy to take for granted how accessible delicious quality coffee is here in the US. It’s mind blowing how much work is done before coffee even starts its ocean voyage to our roastery to later become the bean water in your mug, so bear with me as I give you a detailed (yet also very spark noted) run through of one aspect of all this work - post harvest quality control.
Each sample represents a ‘lot’, which is essentially a collection of coffee that can range from a small lil pile to a large amount that can fill an entire shipping container. By this point, this lot has already been entered into GTNay's traceability systems, keeping tabs on who produced it, where it was produced, what varieties it is, etc. From our perspective in the QC lab, we start by giving this sample a code and a label, or ‘etiqueta’. Next, we start playing with the coffee, aka working - we first remove any foreign material from the sample, such as twigs, rocks, etc. These coffees are grown in forests and dried on patios outside, so it’s no surprise that twigs and leaves and rocks find their way into the mix every now and then. (While we remove these by hand in the lab, the equipment at the dry mill will clean these lots up when they’re getting prepped for export.) Next, we take moisture measurements before milling them, aka removing the dried parchment, or dried cherry layer for natural processed lots. (Here’s a quick refresher for what these terms mean.) GTNay invented their own tabletop milling machine btw, and milling a bunch of samples in a row was always a great opportunity to blast some José José, Grupo Frontera, Bad Bunny and Junior H. Once milled, we’re left with green coffee which we then weigh to determine the yield from parchment or cherry to green. Next up, we’d take more moisture measurements and sort the green coffee by screen (how big or small the beans are). This is done by sifting the beans through a series of sieves, or screens. Once separated, we’d weigh each screen size, and record how much of the total sample is made up of each size. Then comes the green grading!
That box lookin thing on the left is what's used to separate beans by their screen size, and in front is the moisture meter, surrounded by recently milled green samples in their lil baskets!
For each screen size, we’d remove all the defects (this process is also called ‘cleaning the sample’) then we’d count them and enter this data into their traceability software. (Speaking of green coffee defects, we are incredibly grateful for Camila Khalifé, who has encouraged us to rethink and take a critical look at how we as coffee buyers think about green coffee defects. If you haven't yet, we highly recommend that you check out her presentation from Roast Summit in 2024.) Often, it would be four of us sitting around the table, all working through as many samples as possible before lunch, and us gringos would be ‘speaking’ Spanish with our boss, Carlos and the office crew as much as possible to try to learn a little bit more of the language each day. I put ‘speaking’ in quotes on purpose, because the sounds that were coming out of our mouths at this time definitely wouldn’t qualify as Spanish. Turns out learning a language is tough, and the office staff was very very patient with us. This ‘table’ is also something worth noting. It’s called the Fincalab, and they invented it with the goal of making it more accessible and affordable for coffee farmers to be able to evaluate the quality of their own coffee, something that many marginalized smallholder farmers throughout the world do not have the ability to do. Knowledge is power!
Once all the defects have been removed, we’re left with clean, uniform and defect-free green coffee samples, which we’d throw in their custom sample roaster (yet another one of their inventions) to turn them brown and get them ready for their big debut on the cupping table. The following day we’d cup, and then record all the cupping data into their traceability software. Cupping is a protocol in which multiple coffees can efficiently and consistently be tasted/evaluated side by side. Cuppers use soup spoons to slurp lil sips of each coffee into their mouth, where they attempt to put subjective experiences into an objective language via numbers and descriptions to quality and quantify various aspects of each coffee such as sweetness, balance, acidity, body, etc. Once enough samples have been evaluated and entered into the software, usually somewhere around the middle to end of the harvest, this data is used to make informed decisions about which lots to blend together, which to keep separate, which to send to the US, and which to send to other markets such as Europe and Australia.
This QC lab is found in GTNay’s administrative office, Cafesumex, which also serves as the location for weekly assemblies for the leaders of the member associations to meet and make collaborative decisions. This democratically run organization is vertically integrated, which means that GTNay has control of every step along the process, ending with their importing leg, San Cristobal. This structure keeps more of the decision making power and control in the hands of the producers themselves, and relies on the efforts of several departments and individuals to make it all work. A handful of the CafeSumex crew generously shared a little bit from their perspective for this blog:
This blog has been focusing on a lot of QC stuff, so here are some words from Carlos Bustamente, the QC Lab Manager:
I grew up in the countryside and come from a family of coffee producers. But it wasn't until I was 16 that I started getting involved in a local cooperative. This sparked an intense desire to learn about what makes coffee "quality." This feeling grew even more when Cafesumex arrived with a great proposal to help producers earn more money. They did this by educating coffee producer groups so they could achieve quality and transparency. It's so fulfilling to know that by doing my part to improve coffee quality, I can positively impact the finances and sustainability of every producer who is part of Grupo Terruño Nayarita. It motivates me to keep working so more people can join the project and get more benefits as coffee producers.
With the training we give producers and the feedback we provide during and after the harvest, we can achieve a common goal: producing quality coffee to positively impact producers’ finances. It's also a real pleasure to cup the coffees from the different organizations that make up the group and learn the entire story behind each cup we analyze. Knowing the story of each cup is truly a privilege. "Every cup of coffee is a story." Quality control is a very important factor. We know that cup quality can be subjective—everyone likes the coffee they like, and that's not up for debate. But when we talk about true quality coffee, there are international standards. If we don't have process controls, we won't have consistency in our lots. Therefore, we have to standardize our processes to maintain quality. As a result, these controls provide us with product traceability and transparency. This benefits the group by giving producers greater earnings, because specialty coffees command better prices. More quality, more profit.
This season, more organizations and independent producers who used to sell on their own are approaching the organization. They're starting to understand that they can get more benefits by belonging to the group than by working with "coyotes," who take the producers' profits by offering very low prices for their coffee.
Marcela is the office manager at Cafesumex, and her words share some insight into all the work and projects they’re involved in:
My job is to ensure that our team can achieve the company's goals, which are constantly evolving. One of the greatest constants we have is evolution. It seems easy, but there are always challenges that require planning, management, organization, decision-making, and, most importantly, the loyalty of a good team committed not only to their work but to constant social improvement for the benefit of the coffee world.
2025 is full of new developments and the consolidation of new goals. Our team experienced the move and opening of our new offices, which, in collaboration with Grupo Terruño Nayarita, will allow us to launch our roasted coffee brand "GTN." This brand belongs to more than 600 coffee-producing families in the state of Nayarit, representing an alliance of cooperation and the foundation of a true social commitment. This will also make some of our highest-quality coffees, which tend to be exclusively exported, available to our local market.
We're also moving forward with implementing new processes in other countries and states of Mexico. This year, in collaboration with the Peruvian company COPAGRY, we're working on the export of a second container to the US. It will have the endorsement and certification of CAFESUMEX's quality control processes, which have distinguished us for over 25 years. Additionally, last June, we began exploring other regions of Mexico to implement the same project that already exists in Nayarit. This allowed us to learn about and exchange coffee samples from Puebla, which opens the door for us to prepare for the 2026 harvest. In the next season, you'll be able to taste fully traceable coffee from Nayarit, Chiapas, Veracruz, and Puebla.
I hope you can all get to know us and visit the beautiful state of Nayarit, our home and the headquarters of our FincaLab portable process control laboratory—the heart of the end-to-end traceability magic.
Coffee hugs!
Marisol López Sánchez helps manage the traceability department:
We generate a QR code for each and every lot of coffee that’s produced within our association. When scanned, this code directs consumers to trackyourcoffee.com where they can trace the coffee. The site provides detailed information including the larger region/community, the specific farm (‘parcela’), the altitude, the processing method, the names of the producers, whether it’s certified organic or conventional, and all the QC data. We track the beans at every stage of the supply chain, which offers transparency to the consumer, allowing them to know the origin and history of the product they are consuming.
Fredy is a producer within the organization, as well as the main agronomist who assists all the farmers:
Grupo Terruño Nayarita consists of 10 societies spread throughout the state of Nayarit, with approximately 30 members in each society. Over the years, the group has remained strong and consolidated, which has allowed the children of producers to join the organization (GTN). I am one of those people; I'm a producing member of the Cuerno society, and I also serve as an agronomy technician for the GTN group. I advise each society on the agronomic management of their crops. At the same time, I share my knowledge with them, learn from their experiences, and contribute techniques I've learned from my studies. This has also allowed me to plant more coffee and experiment with managing coffee crops, as Nayarit has a range of microclimates and mineral-rich soil.
(Fredy also shared with me that he had just finished up a project in which they planted 10,000 new coffee plants in the region including gesha, variedad colombia, and marsellesa. Fingers crossed he sets some aside for us!)
And last but not least, let’s zoom out from GTN specifically, and hear from Cámara Candelaria:
Cámara isn’t involved with GTN, but she’s a freaking legend and is doing amazing work in the region - she’s a coffee producer, she’s a certified Q processing generalist, she has six years of experience roasting and over 15 years of experience as a barista. She’s traveled throughout several states in Mexico to work with countless producers, and through her project, Coffee Tasting Room, she helps farmers develop the skills and knowledge to know the quality of their coffees. Similar to Fincalab, but on an individual level.
I have experience working on farms in Chiapas and Veracruz, but it's the Nayarit crop and its preservation that have led me to volunteer my time. I work with producers who don't have the capital or the means to access new systems or protocols in permaculture, regenerative plant systems, varieties, and processing. For two years, I would do this consultation for free because I think of it as a life project, and I hope that soon there will be more people doing this kind of work. I’m currently working with several producers, some with just a few hectares of land and others who manage up to 200 hectares. I soon learned that in Nayarit, there aren’t as many people as I expected [outside of GTN] who have the ability and knowledge to invest in improving their coffee quality. For instance, many producers do not invest in soil health, a practice that can help coffee plants stay healthy and produce quality coffee for up to 50 years. In some cases, producers lack the necessary water to wash their coffee. This lack of resources leads producers to a preference to produce natural processed coffees. Lastly, some producers are switching from coffee to other crops/activities such as avocados, agave, and livestock in order to make a better living.
If you’ve read up to this point - thank you. It’s not often that we get to learn and hear directly from coffee producers and organizations in predominantly coffee producing countries such as Mexico. Big thanks to Marcela, Carlos, Fredy, Marisol and Cámara for being a part of this, and for sharing their perspectives with us. At D-dub, we truly believe that the more we know about these realities, the perspective of others along the supply chain, and all the tedious work that goes into a beverage that’s super easy for us to take for granted, we can become a better coffee roaster and buyer, and we can all become better consumers. Thanks for the continued support - it’s no exaggeration to say that without you, we wouldn’t be able to work with, support, and collaborate with the good crew at GTN.
